PARKER COUNTY — This is a story about a dog who caught a dog catcher, and in the process got his owner some much needed medical attention.
Bear, a 180-pound German shepherd, was on a mission on Saturday. Bear's owner, Debbie Zeisler, suffered a seizure, collapsed and hit her head on the steps leading to her front yard."The thing is that this dog saved my life," Zeisler said.After being unable to awaken his owner, Bear went to a neighbor’s house and scratched on the door to try to get help, but no one was there, said Karen Kessler, Parker County animal control supervisor, who saw Bear going door-to-door.Bear went to another neighbor's house, but that home owner had replaced their fence and the new fence was too high for the dog to jump over, Zeisler said. Kessler found the dog wandering around in the 100 block of East Cattail Lane in Millsap on Saturday while answering an unrelated call with a co-worker, Kessler said. Or perhaps Bear actually found Kessler."Bear just crawled up in my lap while I was sitting in the truck," Kessler said. "One of his tags said 'I am a service dog' and another said 'I am a seizure dog.' When we found him we knew there was a problem because service dogs normally don't leave their people."Kessler tried to trace Bear to his owner from the tag information but discovered it was outdated, she said. When he was found, Bear had been going from house-to-house looking for help for his owner, but he could not make anyone understand his predicament, Kessler said."We weren't giving up," said Terry Pena, Parker County animal control officer. "We knew there was someone out there who needed help."Kessler and Pena eventually found Zeisler using the same door-to-door method Bear used earlier in his attempt to get help. When they located her, Zeisler was disoriented and confused. Zeisler initially refused medical treatment, but Kessler and Pena insisted on calling an ambulance. Bear would not let his owner out of his sight and climbed into the ambulance with her, Kessler said. Zeisler said her seizures started about 18 years ago following a riding accident. Zeisler said she probably laid in her front yard on Saturday for more than 30 minutes before Kessler and Pena arrived. Zeisler said she adopted Bear from the Weatherford-Parker County Animal Shelter about a year ago, and he was later certified as a medical service dog.Bear was close to being euthanized when Zeisler adopted him, she said. Now, the dog tracks Zeisler until he is sure she has taken her medications, Zeisler said. "He will follow me to the kitchen to make sure that I take my medicine," Zeisler said. "Once I feel better he will go lay down. Now I can tell him to go get my pills and he will go and get them for me. They might be a little slobbery, but he will go get them for me."Zeisler told the Parker County Sheriff's Office that Bear has rescued her before. In November, he ran to a neighbor's house in the middle of the night and scratched on the door to get help when she had a seizure."He is one incredible dog," she said.Mitch Mitchell, 817-390-7752
