‘Real-life Lassie’: Dog leads New Hampshire police to her injured owner following crash
By Amy Simonson, CNN
A Shiloh Shepherd named Tinsley earned some extra treats Monday night after leading authorities to her owner, who was injured after a vehicle crash and in urgent need of help.
Tinsley caught the attention of New Hampshire State Police when they responded to a call about a loose dog on the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge, which spans the New Hampshire-Vermont border on I-89.
Trooper Tom Sandberg and officers from the Lebanon Police Department located a large dog looking skittish and scared, said NHSP Lt. Dan Baldassarre. “They were trying to get the dog off of the highway to keep it safe,” he said.
Sandberg and the officers tried to get close to the dog but she would run and then stop and look at them, trying to get their attention.
“The dog stood at the top of the embankment and looked down,” Baldassarre said.
The officers noticed a damaged section of guardrail and when they looked down saw a badly damaged pickup truck that had rolled over, NHSP public information officer Amber Lagace said in an email to CNN.
Two men inside the truck had been thrown from the vehicle and were injured and hypothermic, Lagace said.
Sandberg and the officers called for medical assistance and while at the scene, they learned Tinsley belonged to one of the injured men.
“This was almost like a real-life Lassie situation,” Baldassarre said. “It’s really quite remarkable. This dog definitely saved their lives. I don’t think they would have survived the night given the temperatures.”
Both men were taken to an area hospital for treatment, Vermont State Police said.
“She’s my guardian angel,” Tinsley’s owner, Cam Laundry, told CNN affiliate WPTZ. “It’s a miracle that she had that kind of intelligence to do what she did.”
Laundry described Tinsley as his co-pilot and said they regularly travel together in the truck that crashed.
Her heroism would be rewarded, he said.
“She gets spoiled all the time,” Laundry told WPTZ. “She’ll get some venison, probably burger, tonight and probably some back scratches with it.”
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