'Katie was a 1 in 22 million tissue match': Pawrent with only 5 years left to live gets saved by her Doberman who wouldn't leave a stranger alone at the beach, who just happened to be her perfect donor

You know how your dog loves to go up to strangers and become immediate best friends? Well, for Lucy, her Doberman 'Indie' did that and ended up saving her life.

My dog's perfect walk involves very little walking and 1,000 introductions. She knows she's cute and she loves getting attention from people who think she's cute. She goes up to them, uninvited, stares at them with her big, puppy dog eyes, wags her tail, and they fall in love with her. It's her favorite activity. Usually, we frantically apologize for the intrusion (because not everyone wants a random, albeit cute, dog in their personal space), but it has led us to meet some interesting people. For Lucy, though, her doggo's new best friend ended up being a 1 in 22 million chance that would eventually save her life.

Lucy was given only 5 more years to live and needed a kidney transplant. She and her husband took Indie to a beach in South Wales, where Indie ran off to make friends with another woman, Katie, who was camped down a little ways away. As we normally do, Lucy ran after Indie and apologized, then invited Katie over to their barbecue later. Over the course of the evening, Lucy admitted to needing a transplant, to which Katie said, "Oh, I've just gone on the kidney donation register!" 

What are the odds?

Katie did end up giving her kidney to Lucy, and the transplant was a complete success. Now, the two are best friends and bonded for life. 

Did Indie smell something special in Katie? Dogs have been known to be able to sniff out the difference between sick and healthy cells, but we can't really say that that's what happened for sure. What we do know, though, is that without Indie, Lucy and Katie might never have met, and both of their futures would look very different.