(Joe Mauk/PEOPLEPets.com) Roxanne has been exceptionally protective and attentive with owner Joe Mauk. "I've never felt safer in my life," he said. "She has one eye open all the time."
Dog Saves Blind Owner from Blood-Sugar Crash
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APRIL 29, 2010
Laura T. Coffey, MSNBC

Roxanne was carefully trained as a guide dog for the blind -- but she received no training at all to sense an impending medical crisis. The faithful Labrador retriever figured that part out all on her own.
Her handler, Joe Mauk of Brookville, Pa., had lost his vision after enduring Type I diabetes for years. In early 2010, he got all set to take Roxanne out for her evening walk, but she resisted. "She wouldn't get in her harness and kept laying down and putting her head on her legs," Mauk told PeoplePets.com.
Mauk finally managed to coax her outside -- and during the walk, he collapsed. "My blood sugar crashed," he said. "It was pretty much a crawl back to my house -- I was fighting for consciousness." Roxanne madly licked his hands and dragged him back home by her leash. "I remember getting my front door open, but from there it went blank. When I came to, a syringe of glucagon still in my leg, I was saturated from sweat -- and from Roxanne licking my face and arms. I'd never felt her react to anything that way before."
Since the incident, Roxanne has been exceptionally protective and attentive with Mauk. "I've never felt safer in my life," he said. "She has one eye open all the time."
© 2010 msnbc.com
Reproduced with permission of MSNBC, from Man's best friends: 11 animals who saved human lives by Laura T. Coffey, April 2010, permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
You can read this story in its original location and view the related video at: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36834168/
Read on for 11 outstanding examples of animals who saved the lives of humans:
Click here for list of all eleven stories about animals who saved human lives!
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