Dog Names Ending in ro

If ever a dog lived up to their name, this one sure did. Hero, a one-year-old Greyhound mix saved his nine-year-old human’s life when he had a diabetic emergency and earned his name, without ever having a lick of training. The Weston family had just adopted Hero from a shelter, saving him from being euthanized and he soon returned the favor by saving their son. 

Weston Murphy, who was nine at the time, has had type one diabetes since he was born and since it was so serious, he had an insulin pump. The pump automatically delivers fast acting insulin 24 hours a day through a catheter that is placed under the skin. The doses were set to keep Weston’s blood sugar levels even and normal at all times. 

One night when everyone was asleep, Hero started barking furiously from Weston’s room where he sleeps with the boy every night. Weston’s mom, Myra, thought that someone might have broken into their home because of how aggressive Hero was barking. But he was in Weston’s bed and barking at them like he was trying to tell them something. 

Myra thought it was strange that Weston was sleeping through all the racket of Hero’s barking, so she knew something must be wrong. She checked his insulin pump and found that it had stopped working in the night and that Weston’s blood sugar was extremely high, sending him into a diabetic coma. Although Hero had never had any training in sugar level tracking, he must have been able to smell the scent of ketones, which smell like nail polish remover. 

When Weston’s blood sugar went up, his ketone levels rocketed as well, giving off that nail polish remover smell that Hero must have noticed. How he knew that it was important and that he should bark to wake someone up is a mystery. Nobody had ever even shown Hero Weston’s pump or anything. However, if Hero had not woken up Myra, the boy’s blood sugar would have just kept rising, which could have been fatal before morning. 

The interesting thing about this is that the family thought maybe Hero could not bark at all because he had never barked since they got him. That is why it was so shocking when he woke them up with such a racket. The doctor said that Hero definitely saved Weston’s life and is a true Hero that lived up to his name.