STEVENS COUNTY, Wash. — Keith Johnson is recovering at Providence Saint Joseph's Medical Center thanks to his 13-year-old dog, Gita, who went to go get help for him after he fell and broke his hip. The injury caused him to be stranded outside for six-and-a-half hours in Stevens County.
On September 25th, Johnson, who is a diabetic, was woken up at 5:30 a.m. by his continuous glucose monitor telling him that his blood sugar was low. While on the way to go to the fridge to get some orange juice, he noticed that his dog Gita needed to use bathroom.
Johnson tells KREM 2 that while outside, Gita wanted to go deeper into the woods and wouldn't listen to him when he tried to call her back. Figuring it would be dawn soon, Johnson turned around to head back to the house when suddenly he felt dizzy and fell on the ground cracking his hip.
"I would call for help and Gita would come over and finally she decided that she had to act on that," Johnson said.
Gita jumped into action like Lassie, doing whatever she could to bring someone to help her dad.
Stevens County Patrol Deputy, Colton Wright, tells KREM 2 that he first noticed Gita on the side of the road and tried to get her to go home but she wouldn't move.
"She didn't have a collar or anything so I went around with a picture of her but no one knew who she belonged to," Wright said.
When he drove by Gita again, this time she was in the middle of the road.
"I just had this gut feeling that something was wrong so I parked and tried to grab her but she pulled away and started to lead me down the driveway," Wright said.
Initially, Deputy Wright was going to knock on the door to let the property owner know that Gita was out on the road, but when no one answered the door he started looking around the wooded area near the cabin and that's when he saw Johnson lying on the ground.
"I ran down to Keith I asked him you know what hurts and he told me that his leg hurt so I ran back to my truck got on the radio and asked for medical to respond and hung out with him until EMS arrived," Wright said.
"He said your dog is a hero she saved your life today and that was my first thought too," Johnson said.
Johnson is grateful that the rest of the world gets to see just how special Gita is after the sheriff's office posted to Facebook about Gita's heroism.
While the road to recovery is still a long way away, Johnson is making good progress with frequent visits from his best friend.