Beagle Dials 911, Saves Owner, Wins Award May 26, 2006
Posted by Michael in Heroes.trackback
No, I am not making this up.
Friday May 26, 1:25 pm ET
ORLANDO, Fla., May 26 /PRNewswire/ — A beagle that dialed 911 on her owner's Cingular Wireless phone, potentially saving his life after he went into a diabetic seizure, is the first animal to receive the prestigious VITA Wireless Samaritan Award. Belle and her owner, Kevin Weaver, will travel to Washington, D.C. on June 19, 2006 to be recognized at The 12th Annual Wireless Foundation Achievement Awards Dinner.
Each year, CTIA-The Wireless Foundation presents the VITA (Latin for "life") Wireless Samaritan Awards to honor people (and, in this case, an animal) across the United States who used their wireless phones to save lives, stop crime and help in other emergency situations. Wireless carriers submit nominations for the awards. Cingular Wireless submitted Belle's nomination.
So, Belle is not exactly being honored for crimefighting, but I still think this is evidence that beagles (like aardvarks) have the proper Batman Spirit.
Belle was trained to help Mr. Weaver deal with his diabetes:
Weaver, an Ocoee, Florida resident with diabetes, got two-year-old Belle for companionship. But when Weaver learned of a nonprofit organization in Atlanta that trains dogs to alert owners of oncoming seizures and to respond, he decided to have Belle trained. By simply licking and sniffing the tip of Weaver's nose several times a day, Belle can detect through taste and smell Weaver's blood sugar levels. When his levels drop below normal, Belle warns Weaver buy whining and pawing at him.
See Dave? Beagles don't just sniff crotches.
Mr. Weaver got in trouble by not paying sufficient attention to Belle:
Weaver's $8,000 investment in Belle's training paid off dearly on the morning of February 7th, 2006. Weaver awoke that day feeling badly. Belle whined and pawed at her owner, but Weaver misinterpreted Belle's actions as a sign that she needed to go out. Within minutes, he slipped into a diabetic seizure.
I'll bet anything that Belle's I-gotta-poop whine is way different from her your-nose-smells-funky whine. And Weaver was feeling badly. Belle had every right to be annoyed. Wouldn't you be annoyed if you were trying to save someone's life, and they sent you outside to poop?
Of course you would. Belle could be excused at this point for thinking that she had done her part and her dumb-ass owner was on his own.
But not Belle. She grabbed Weaver's cell phone and called for help.
Belle retrieved Weaver's wireless phone and pressed the 9 key — which was preprogrammed to dial 911 — with her teeth, as she had been trained to do. Paramedics were on the scene within minutes. When Weaver regained consciousness, he was in the hospital and was told his blood sugar levels had dropped to 25, way below the normal range of 80-120.
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Innocent Bystanders 
I’ll be impressed when Belle can perform CPR.
She probably had herself a nice, long crotch sniff before she dialed.
But that’s a pretty cool dog. Mine would have waited a day or two before before starting in on the soft parts.
I’m impressed now. See, Dave? You just need to spend $8,000 on training.
You can hire a live-in hooker to smell ya for that much…
What’s a “Heros.”
The opposite of a “Villans”.
By the way, shouldn’t you end your question with a question mark.
heroEs.
I take responsibility for not spelling heroes correctly. I’m starting to think some of you are o-c.
Maybe I can use this as an excuse to get a dog.
And how the heck can a dog detect someone’s blood sugar level by licking and sniffing? My machine can’t do that. It needs blood. Ooooooh. Maybe we humans have to sacrifice blood to the evil blood sugar testing machine gods, who only then will deign to tell us our blood sugar level via an LCD screen.
Muslihoon, what those bastard dog trainers don’t tell you is that their dogs bite the master’s nose and then lick the blood.
Belle doesn’t sound like much of a hero, now, does she?
Muslihoon, there are breathalyzer machines that can measure blood alcohol content. Dogs have amazing senses of smell. I’d bet they can tell relative blood sugar levels from the breath coming out of someone’s nose. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next 2-3 years they have a breathalyzer for blood sugar as well.
Damn, Bart, you are harsh. The dog dialled frickin’ 911! Does that not count for anything???
When my son was diagnosed at diabetic at age 6 the doctor got the first clue by smelling his breath. Changed our lives forever with one sniff. Looking back it was good detective work, but it seemed pretty odd at the time.
I’d guess the dog’s owner probably didn’t recognize the whine because of being disoriented. Diabetics can seem intoxicated when their levels get out of whack.
is he animaldextrious?
just proves to show you – dogs are man’s (and woman’s) best friend,
For those that are not familiar with diabetes, when a diabetic coma is eminent it is very difficult for the person to think rationally. A Diabetic goes ionto a state of delirium.(similar to an uncontrollable drunken stupor)
The assistance dog can possibly be trained to smell a change in breath or behavior patterns or even sense a chemical change in a person.
The way a dog can learn is that they are awarded when they perform a specific task when someone is feeling or acting a certian way.
Many diabetics can die in this state if unattended to.
I think Barts feelings for dogs comes from the fact that all dogs want to sniff him. It’s a natural instinct for a dog to want to smell an asshole.
What a bunch of morons. Don’t you have anythng else to do?
It’s a natural instinct for a dog to want to smell an asshole.
Followed by:
What a bunch of morons. Don’t you have anythng else to do?
Ask and you shall receive
My husband is insulin dependant diabetic and after having it for over 15 years now he does not always feel the low sugar warning signals. It’s called hypoglycemia unawareness and it is very serious. He has had many seizures and even become disoriented and been lost and wondering in the city for over 3 hours. When you all make these ignorant jokes it breaks my heart. A dog like this could make the difference of my children keeping their father….God forbid you be struck with this disease. You have no idea how horrible this is to deal with and personally I will be further looking into one of these dogs for my husband, without out some help people who suffer from this know it is just a matter of time before one of the low blood sugars catch up to them and something very serious, even death, will occur.
Hmmm, I don’t think we were being disrespectful.
Were we?
Anonymous (16 & 20):
I really meant no disrespect for Mr. Weaver. I'm also aware that diabetics sometimes cannot detect their condition before it is too late for them to react rationally. Obviously, the dog in the story had been trained to dial 911 precisely because a situation might arise where Mr. Weaver was unable to help himself. The joke was about what the dog might have been thinking and how she persevered anyway.
I'm truly sorry about your husband's condition and recognize that this is an extremely serious health problem. We joke about virtually everything here and did not mean to give offense. I'm sorry my fanciful take on the story was hurtful for you.
Anonymous, if that really is your name, there’s nothing I hate more than finger-waggers. Are we supposed to feel bad now?
Piss off.
For all you speaking badly of the poor dog and owner – You guys are all freaks. Grow up –
Great story, one thing for sure the beagle played a part!
Why some of you are so bad….Belle the beagle was a good dog,she did a good job,i say that the owner was lucky to have her! 🙂
Wow,the owner’s dog is well trained?where did he take Belle to trained that kind of things?I wish if my dog can do that as well………..the owner is one lucky man to have that beagle. 😀
Why are some people so cruel???
The dog must having A HAPPY LIFE WITH ITS OWNER!!
🙂 😀 😦 :O
Look how stupid are random internet surfers?
Shitheads, all.
Belle’s actions are not that uncommon at all. My mother’s dog, Lexi, has been doing this for over a year and has not been professionally trained. She has saved my mother over 40 times. Lexi can detect when my mother’s blood sugar starts to drop to dangerous levels by smelling the subtle changes in her skin. Lexi will start to push her. Like Weaver the first couple times, my mom thought Lexi needed to go outside. After realizing that wasn’t the case she started “paying attention”. Lexi can alert her fast enough for her to get juice and start to get her sugar up. Lexi has even alerted someone else that was standing next to my mother. Now Lexi goes everywhere with my Mom and my mother feels like she has her life back again.
Hey, what can I say, the old lady is good to me.
as the happy owner of 2 beagles, I just want to say that they are amazingly intelligent dogs, so intelligent they won’t do what you say, unless there is a motivational factor involved… and being hounds, that means food… I love my Eeyore and Roo more than anything, but I know if I want them to “sit” I better have something yummy in my hands. I am absolutely amazed with Belle… Not because she figured it out, but because she was that well trained.
I do have to add that our society does protect those whom evolution would have weeded out