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  • Mutual Rescue Stories

  • In 2010, my doctor told me to buy a funeral plot because I would need one within the next 5 years.

  • But I'm still here, because a shelter dog saved my life.

  • Eric & Peety

  • When people see a photo of who I was 5 years ago, they can't, and often don't believe that it's me.

  • My weight had crept up to 340 pounds, my blood pressure was through the roof, super high cholesterol, I had Type 2 diabetes,

  • and I was taking over a thousand dollars worth of medications a month.

  • And I just felt really uncomfortable around other people. I became separated from society and I just stopped living.

  • I went on a business trip. You know how small airplane seats are.

  • I could barely squeeze into one and basically I'd spill over both sides.

  • They had to delay the flight, because they didn't have a seatbelt extension that would fit me.

  • There was a gentleman next to me, and he just looked in complete disgust, and he looked at me,

  • and he goes, "I'm gonna miss my connection 'cause you're too fat."

  • That really was my bottom point. That's the point that I really decided that, you know, I'm either gonna die or I have to do something.

  • I looked in the phone book and I found a nutritionist near me.

  • One of the first things that she asked me to do was to go adopt a shelter dog.

  • It would force me to go outside, it would force me to become more socially interactive.

  • So I went to a local shelter, and I remember telling the lady,

  • "I would like an obese, middle-aged dog, so that I would have something in common with him."

  • And when I walked in the room, we both looked at each other with, like a look of "really?"

  • I took him home that night, neither of us knew what to expect.

  • And over a period of time, we really formed an inseparable bond,

  • and one that I'd never really experienced with another person or animal or anybody.

  • We began walking for at least a half an hour a day, every day.

  • And over the course of a year, just by changing what I ate, and walking with Peety, I lost about 140+ pounds.

  • Everything about my life improved.

  • I got off all meds, I no longer have Type II diabetes. Peety also lost about 25 pounds.

  • So we did it together. It was like a miracle.

  • There you go! Whoo! Hi Peety!

  • So I read over Peety's paperwork when I adopted him, and it turns out that, he was left alone in a backyard, and nobody played with him.

  • He had arthritis and all kinds of rashes, and his skin was just itching all the time.

  • He was wondering what would ever happen to him.

  • He'd gone from being in a situation like I was, where he didn't have any friends, and he didn't know anybody, and really became a proud dog.

  • Peety, ready for the next stop? Peety's a good boy!

  • Beyond unconditional love,

  • (Yum! Peanut butter!)

  • Peety taught me absolute loyalty.

  • He looked at me, in every sense, as though I was the greatest person on the planet.

  • I decided that, I wanted to be the person who he thought I was.

  • One of the things that I dreamed of doing was running a full marathon. And he looked at me, like, "You can do it!"

  • And I went out, and I did it.

  • This entire process brought me out of my shell and made me a different person.

  • I knew that he was getting old and his time was coming.

  • They discovered a really large cancerous growth on his spleen, and there was really nothing that they could do.

  • I knew that he was gonna die. I just laid with him on the floor.

  • He just looked at me and I could tell, that the life had just passed out of him.

  • And that was the end. And I just sat there, and I held him. I loved him so much.

  • I just was so sad and, you know, I'm still not over it.

  • About 6 months later, after a race, suddenly, it just came into my mind : "Just drive over to the shelter right now." And I did.

  • There was a dog that had been put in the adoption pen four minutes earlier.

  • His photo wasn't on the wall, he wasn't on the website, and I just looked at him, and he looked at me,

  • and he went, it was like, "Dude, let's get out of here!"

  • Jake is a completely different dog.

  • Jake loves to play and we started training, and he now runs 10 mile distances with me,

  • and we're gonna do our first half marathon together.

  • He's the best running buddy I could possibly have.

  • So really, thanks to Peety, I wake up every day, wanting to be the best person that I can possibly be.

  • He completely transformed me into a different person.

  • I think about it now, who rescued whom? I mean, did I rescue him or did he rescue me?

Mutual Rescue Stories

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