‘He was attached to me as I saved him from a very scary situation.’: Brave hooman rescues dog from a fatal fall off a cliff, returning the favor to canine kind and the dog who saved his life as a child 20 years earlier

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Nov 28, 2025 1:00 PM EST

In movies, heroic doggos are almost a dime a dozen. Well, at least they were back in the 80s, 90s, and 00s when the likes of Lassie and Air Bud were all the rage. But even in that golden era, it was hard to ever believe that a darling doggo could actually be so cognitively aware as to carry out such serious rescues as they did in the movies.

But today we have proof from a story that tells the tale of a heroic pupper who literally went and called for help when their hooman buddy got into trouble. Literally saving the person's life. And even more so than that, the story goes on to tell the tale of the person who was saved, saving a different doggo decades later. Showing that one act of kindness can have a lifetime of impact. Talk about a picture-perfect ending.

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    So when I was 4-5yo my mom and I traveled the west coast with her boyfriend who was a logger for Ericsson aircrane. We lived in an RV and would
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    stop at RV parks here and there. Believe we were in Big Bear, CA. My mom was doing dishes with door open and I was supposed to stay in
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    front but was out behind the RV playing on a 1 or 2 story high cliff. Pretending I was a rock climber. Well I grabbed a rock and it came out as a small boulder and I
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    tumbled to bottom. The boulder followed me down and hit me in the back of my head and knocked me semi unconscious. I faintly remember this dog
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    running away before going black. I came to with my mom rushing me to hospital in car. Where I then had 8 stitches.
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    My moms story is that this dog came over to RV and wouldn't leave while barking so she stepped towards the door and the dog did a 'follow me'
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  • No freaking way! We cannot believe that this movie moment actually happened to someone in real life. And while it wasn’t based around a kid named Timmy, and it has nothing to do with him falling down a well, this version of the story is no less tense, dramatic and heroic. What a good dog for making the effort to save his hooman buddy.

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    type maneuver and so my mom got worried and followed dog around corner to find me in a puddle of b d and unconscious. The
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    dog totally swiftly went and got my mom. She says I was only unconscious for a very short amount of time. I still couldn't imagine what my mom saw
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    coming around the corner. We also were always the only African American family in most towns we went to in '91 and my mom is from Louisiana with a lot
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    of racism as is. She thought I had been ked. We never saw the dog or the owner again. Fast forward 20 years to Santa
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  • Like, talk about a selfless and insanely intelligent act. For this pupper to care enough about a hooman that it had just met, and for it to understand that this hooman had a mother and who that mother was. Just wow, our minds are totally blown. We cannot say that there is any part of life where one comes across such a sweet and selfless act of care.

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    Barbara, CA. My friend and I decide that we should go for a run with our dogs at dog beach, which the cliff along it has a dog park at top about 200ft up.
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    Well we get down there and see a big crowd formed and looking up at the top somewhere. We get closer and that's when I notice a medium sized dog
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    stuck and hanging from minimal brush growing out of cliff. It had fallen maybe 20-30 feet and was barely hanging on. No time to go any way but up!
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    So I started to climb this hill that turns into a vertical solid cliff. Eventually it became ONLY the branch's from cliffs brush I was holding to climb hire.
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    Nothing an animal without opposable thumbs could do. This was all arm pulling with minima■ to no help from my legs besides squeezing the
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    Cheezburger Image 10580409600
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    branch's as best as I could for grip. I finally make it up to dog and it just starts growling and snarling at me. So I stick my hand out slowly and tell it I'm
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    here to help and that I'm friendly. It smells me and leaps into my arms. Shaking so vigorously I almost couldn't hold it. So I couldn't lower
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    myself at this point and so had to go up. Reach up and pull with one arm and other holding dog, and transferring dog back and forth each time. Looking down
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    was not happening as I already knew the gravity and height from going to dog park enough. People look like beetles well say. I got to about 10ft
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    from top and I couldn't move anymore. The dog weighed maybe 40lbs. My arms could only hold us at this point and I couldn't go up. I
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    honestly realized we were about to die. I just held the dog and the branch's. My legs were cut up badly from swing in brush. I almost started crying because I couldn't
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    believe my predicament. I contemplated letting go when a stick above me and I only hear yelling 'grab the stick, grab the stick' and with
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    everything I had I reach up and grabbed it. I was then pulled up the rest of the way to top hill. To safety. At the top was a
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    70year old man and his 40s daughter. They ran and found the longest branch they could find to help pull me up because they saw from top I had
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    stopped so close and wasn't gonna make it. Once I had my footing and still holding the dog | turned around to
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    RESCUED DOG 3 Ge 11:55
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    everyone at bottom cheering and applauding so I did what I found extremely humorous at the time(I was 25ish and I'm 33 now). I held the dog
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    up and out(not over cliff but where safety was guaranteed), and I did the Lion King AH ZEBENYA!!!! Yes I did that, I regret that I don't regret it.
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    The dog didn't want to leave me at this point. I couldn't separate or put him down. He was attached to me as I saved him from a very scary situation.
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    As I walked through dog park to find owner she came running up in tears having went to call fire department. And the dog barely would leave me to
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    go to her. Like another person had to help pry him off me. She adamantly insisted that I take $50 or something like that and I reluctantly did
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    because money is money but I didn't need a reward for being a good being just as that dog was for saving me as a kid.
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    Before leaving a fire department came and commended me for my feat. And then a news crew showed up and I was interviewed about rescuing the dog.
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    For months while I worked at gas station corner store people were coming in and being stoked I was the dog rescuer. I was called that by people for
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    quite some time. A little girl even recognized me once and it made my day how much it made her day. I was a hero and I'll never forget that!
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scary dogs favor brave situation fatality hooman reddit story saved cliff dog story fall rescue
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