An 11-year-old boy says his dog saved his life after being trapped at home during Hurricane Helen.
Jamie Parker is forever in debt to his dog, Tucker. Tucker helped save a boy who was thrown under the stairs and into a 12-foot pile of rubble when his home in North Carolina was rocked by a landslide.
“If it wasn't for Tucker, I probably would have died.” he told WCNC..
“I screamed my heart out, but my grandmother couldn't hear me. Tucker was above me, barking. I could hear him whining and barking. .”
Parker's grandfather, Michael Johns, who was at home at the time of the incident with his wife and two grandchildren, Jamie and his sister Gemma, noticed that Tucker had not moved an inch from where he was standing.
“He stayed on top of the mountain and was barking, and I thought he might be crazy,” he recalled to the outlet. “I didn't know he was locating the boy!”
The dog never moved until firefighters arrived and rescued Jamie with the help of a chainsaw.
Jamie's grandmother, Donna Johns, recalled when the landslide first occurred.
“All of a sudden I felt like the house looked like this and I saw the walls coming towards me and I thought, 'What?'” she told the outlet.
Jamie also recalled the terrifying situation.
“Then the house collapsed and my face was buried in the wall and my whole body was blown off,” he said.
After the crash, Donna Johns landed on the roof and Jamie was thrown into a pile of rubble.
“It felt like an eternity there. I couldn't see sunlight. I felt water dripping down my body and thought I was going to drown or run out of air,” he said.
Both Donna Johns and Jamie believed their entire family was gone.
“I was scared. I thought I was all alone,” Jamie told the magazine. “I thought they had fallen. I thought my family was dead.”
“I screamed Jamie, Gemma, Michael and no one answered,” Donna Johns added. “I didn't know if everyone was dead, and I was screaming out of my head.”
Michael Johns was able to find Gemma, but not Jamie.
“It was raining really hard. I remember seeing a little girl, but I couldn't find the boy,” he recalled. “I couldn't find him and I didn't know where he was.”
Jamie was taken to Atrium Health Cabarrus Hospital in Concord due to the trauma he sustained from the harrowing ordeal.
One of the nurses there was fostering Tucker, while others bought out the family who had lost their home, all their possessions, and basic necessities.
Habitat for Humanity also begins fundraising campaign For my family.
Tucker was in a shelter, but Jamie and Gemma used their pocket money to save him from being pinned down.
“He was the last dog there,” Jamie said. “As soon as he saw us, he ran over.”
Years later, his four-legged friend returned the favor.
“And he saved me,” he said.
