My car crash story is a tribute to the animals in our lives, who love and care for us as much as we do for them. Our golden retriever Susie has become more than a pet in our family - she has become our hero by saving our lives from an imminent car crash.
Every Christmas, my kids and I visit my parents who live nearly 400 miles away from us. It was always a grueling 9 to10-hour drive, but we would always try to make it because that's the only time my parents get to see their grandchildren.
It was the holiday season of 2003. I was the designated driver, my wife Adriana was in the passenger seat, and my three kids - Jacob (age 9), Ethan (7), and Caleb (4) - were all piled in the back seat. We tried forcing our dog Susie into her carrier, but she strongly refused to be placed in there. The kids decided to put her by their feet, so there she stayed for the duration of our long drive.
That year, we traveled by night time to avoid the heavy holiday traffic. We left the house at about 9:00 in the evening so we could get to my parents' house by about 6:00 in the morning.
The first three hours were fine. My three kids were all fast asleep in the back seat, including Susie who was lying on their lap. Adriana accompanied me and kept me up through that first few hours of driving. But by around 1 am, she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore so she too fell asleep.
I was also very sleepy by that time, so I stopped at a small convenience store and tried to wake myself up with a cup of coffee. The jolt of caffeine helped for several miles, but the hypnotizing effect of the road and the drone of the car engine soon overpowered the coffee. I was trying to fight it off, but pretty soon I was drifting in and out of sleep. I closed my eyes for what felt like a very short moment. What I didn't know was that I was slowly veering towards the other lane and that a truck was coming very quickly towards us.
I had fallen asleep at the wheel when Susie roughly woke me up by jumping onto my lap. When I opened my eyes, I saw the glaring headlights of the truck heading towards our car. I quickly swerved the car back to our lane. I had narrowly missed hitting the truck and getting my family into what could have been a very serious accident.
I checked everyone to see if they were okay, and they were all still fast asleep. I drove the rest of the distance very alert and awake. As soon as we got there, I told my wife, my kids, and my parents what Susie had done and we could not be any more proud of our dog as we are now. She still gets special treatment up to this day.
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