In an attempt to alert the driver to anything, a service dog aboard the bus began to bark and rub its paws against the dashboard: and then the driver saw it
On a city bus was a police officer in uniform. Sitting comfortably on the front seat behind him was his devoted service dog, a clever husky. This was already a familiar sight to the passengers: the dog seemed to enjoy the peaceful voyage, didn’t annoy anyone, and silently peered out the window to take in the passing countryside.
However, everything abruptly altered midway through the trip.
The husky’s ears sprang upward. Its eyes tightened, as though it had detected a subtle but dangerous signal. The dog began by whining softly, but then it leaped to its feet and ran in the direction of the bus driver.
The service dog started barking loudly while pressing its nose to the windshield and its paws on the dashboard. The dog’s growls and deep, piercing cry suggested that it was demanding something right away. As though to speak, it clawed the dashboard with its paws, glanced directly at the road, and then turned back to face the driver.
At first, the man in his mid-forties who was driving the bus made an effort to ignore it. There were too many people on the bus for him to endanger their lives. He gripped the driving wheel firmly, attempting to ignore the odd behavior of the dog. The dog, however, persisted in barking and forcing its chest against the dashboard, growling, and actually “drawing” the driver’s attention to the road the farther they traveled.
The driver then witnessed it firsthand.
“Oh my God!” he said, applying the brakes forcefully.
A terrible scene—a huge accident—emerged before them. Numerous vehicles had crashed, some of them overturned, while others were totally wrecked.
The wounded lay on the shoulder and the road; some groaned in agony, others attempted to stand. The scent of burning tires and gasoline spread, and smoke soared into the air.
The driver understood that their bus would have been involved in this catastrophe if it had been a few seconds longer. Hundreds of lives, including those of elderly people, children, and travelers, might have been lost.
And the dog was the first to recognize danger. Without its keen hearing, instinct, and frantic barking, the bus might have collided with one of the damaged vehicles.
The bus’s passengers understood they had narrowly escaped calamity. The husky, which continued to stand watchfully at the windshield and never took its eyes off the road, was the center of attention for the passengers.
The dog’s owner, a police officer, patted its neck and mutely uttered:
— Nice work, dude. We all had our lives spared by you.
