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Rescue Dog Saves Four-Year-Old’s Life

By Cheri Cheng | Update Date: Oct 10, 2013 01:56 PM EDT

When Christi Smith from Minneapolis decided to foster a pit bull named Tater Tot, she never imagined that the dog would become the savior of her family. After having Tater Tot for a little less than one week, the pit bull has changed her life forever. According to Smith, Tater Tot had started crying and whining excessively as he ran back and forth between her and her son. After checking up on the dog that was put on death row before Smith saved him, she found her four-year-old son barely breathing,

"He [Tater Tot] kept on whining and barking and running between the two of us," Smith said. "I checked on him [my son], and he was barely breathing. He just seemed kind of weird. He wasn't really coherent - deliriously tired."

Smith immediately brought her son, Peyton Anderson, to the emergency room. The doctors diagnosed the young boy with dangerously low blood sugar. The doctors had stabilized Peyton's condition. According to the medical professionals, Tater Tot most likely saved his life.

"I could have been one of those moms sitting there telling people how I lost my son," Smith said.

According to Isis Sanchez with the Blue Pearl Veterinary Clinic, dogs have a great sense of smell that usually requires training in order to detect health conditions, bombs and drugs. In this situation, Tater Tot might have been able to detect the scent of ketones, which is a compound that forms when one's blood sugar drops too much. Ketones are not too hard to sniff out, Sanchez explained. She stated that even humans could smell it on someone's breath. However, Sanchez added that dogs could also detect changes in electrical activity, which could have helped alert Tater Tot of an impending health condition.

"Doggie heroes come in all sizes," Sanchez said according to FOX 9 News.

Smith, who rescued Tater Tot from the Minneapolis Animal Care and Control and thought that she would only be fostering a dog, is now a proud owner of one. Tater Tot, who is 10-months-old, has definitely earned his spot with this family.

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