A dog saved the life of a 4-year-old in US by detecting a life-threatening drop in the boy's blood sugar and alerting his mother, returning a favour to the family that had rescued the pooch from being put down.
The boy's mother, Christi Smith, from Minnesota, had rescued the pit bull just hours before he was scheduled to be euthanized by a local animal shelter few days ago.
Smith planned to foster the 10-month-old canine, called TaterTot, until she could find him a permanent home.
The pooch may be on its way to become part of the family now after he saved her son's life last week by alerting Smith that the boy was not well in the middle of the night.
"He just seemed kind of weird. He wasn't really coherent - deliriously tired," Smith said.
Although the dog had only been in her home for a few days, the canine quickly sensed something was wrong and began licking and jumping on the boy when he wouldn't wake up.
"He kept on whining and barking and running between the two of us," Smith told Fox 9 News.
When she checked on her son she found that he was barely breathing. The boy was rushed to the emergency room where doctors found his blood sugar to be dangerously low.
"If his blood sugar was that low, he may have been producing ketones. That may have been what the dog picked up on," said Isis Sanchez, of Blue Pearl Veterinary Clinic.
Sanchez said TaterTot's keen sense of smell likely helped him realise the change in the boy's body.
