National Geographic Kids Chapters: Courageous Canine: And More True Stories of Amazing Animal Heroes. Kelly Halls Milner

at Christine’s clothes. The train drew closer and closer.

      Finally, the train engineer saw the dog and woman on the tracks. He tried to stop the heavy train, but it was going too fast. In the nick of time, Lilly dragged Christine off the tracks. Then the dog wrapped her body around the woman. The train hurtled by. The engineer felt a thump.

      When the train rolled to a stop, he jumped to the ground. In a panic, he ran back to Lilly and Christine. He knew the train had hit something. “I thought they were dead,” he later said. They were not. In fact, Christine didn’t have a scratch on her. Lilly was not so lucky.

      The engineer called for help. He looked down at the heroic pit bull. Her front right leg was covered in blood. It was badly hurt. She seemed unable to stand. But her golden eyes shined with courage. To his amazement, she was alert and friendly. She was also determined to stay close to Christine.

      Police officers, firefighters, and paramedics (sounds like pare-uh-MED-iks) rushed to the scene of the accident. They phoned David. They told him his mother was all right, but Lilly was hurt. David had just started his evening shift in Boston. His boss knew how much he loved Lilly, though. “Go!” he told him. In a flash, David was on his way.

      The paramedics wrapped Lilly’s injured leg in bandages. They tried to calm her. Many wounded dogs try to bite people who come near them. Lilly did not. So the paramedics petted and comforted her. They spoke to her softly. “It will be okay, girl,” they said. “Help is on the way.”

      Animal control officers soon arrived to help Lilly. They wrapped her in a blanket and drove her to an emergency clinic for pets. But Lilly’s wounds were too serious for the clinic staff to fix. The train had nearly torn her right paw off. It was very, very bad. All the clinic doctors could do was wait for David. They knew he would have some hard choices to make.

      When David pulled up to the animal clinic, he was afraid. He knew his mother was safe. But how badly hurt was Lilly? Would anyone be able to help her? Would she survive? Tears filled his eyes, just thinking about it. He blinked them away. He needed to focus on helping his dog.

      “What should I do?” David asked the clinic doctors. But Lilly was the one that answered. When she heard David’s voice, she turned to look at him. She softly wagged her tail. Lilly wasn’t giving up. So David wouldn’t either.

      “I saw the same beautiful eyes I saw when I adopted her,” David says. “I felt the same bond.”

      The clinic doctors suggested David take Lilly to Angell (sounds like ANE-juhl) Animal Medical Center in Boston. They told him it was the best animal hospital in the state. If the doctors there couldn’t help Lilly, no one could.

       Famous Pit Bulls

      (photo credits 2.1)

       In 1904, the Buster Brown company used a pit bull named Tige to sell shoes.

       During World War I (1914–1918), the pit bull was used to represent America on posters and postcards.

       In the 1920s, a series of short movies called “Our Gang” featured a sweet pit bull. It had a black ring around its eye and was named Pansy. Later the movies were renamed “The Little Rascals.” Pansy also got a new name—Petey.