She was just an old, golden retriever. Her name was Brandy and for eleven years she was the sole companion of an elderly woman who lived in a bungalow colony in the country. Neighbors often saw the two of them together in the garden. The woman would be hunched over picking flowers and there was that old dog close at her heels or laying in the middle of the grass watching her pull weeds. When the woman died, some relatives came and collected anything they thought of any value and put a For Sale sign on the front lawn. Then they locked the dog out and drove away.

   Over the next few weeks, some of the neighbors left food out for Brandy, but mostly the dog stayed near the house that she knew and waited for the woman to come back. Occasionally, the old retriever would wander next door to play with Adam, the neighbor’s 18 month old baby. Adam loved to feed Brandy cookies.

   One afternoon, the boy’s mother left Adam in the soft grassy yard to play while she answered the phone. When she returned he was gone. Just gone. The mother was frantic. Neighbors came over to help in the search. Police arrived and looked for three hours before calling in the state police and helicopters to do an extensive aerial search. But no one could find the child and the possibility of abduction, injury or even death filled them as the sun set on the horizon.

   The search had been going on for six hours when a neighbor, who’d just returned home, wondered where Brandy was. Adam’s mother, hysterical with worry, couldn’t believe anyone would ask about that old dog at a time like this.

   When someone suggested he might be with Adam, a trooper recalled hearing a dog barking deep in the woods when they were doing a foot search. Suddenly everybody started calling for Brandy.

   They heard faint barking and followed the sound until they found the boy, standing up fast asleep, pressed against the trunk of a tree. That old dog was holding him there with one shoulder as one of her legs dangled over a 35-foot drop to a stream below.

   Brandy had followed Adam when he wandered off. When she saw danger, she’d pushed him out of harm’s way and held him safe for all those hours, even as the child struggled to get free.

   A trooper carried Adam back home, while his mother, sobbing with relief, carried Brandy. She was so grateful to that old dog that Brandy spent the rest of her days with them and lived to the ripe old age of l7.

   But this true story doesn’t end with just one life saved. In Brandy’s honor, Adam’s mother founded Pets Alive, a rescue sanctuary in New York that has been saving animals for 30 years. She takes in unwanted animals including those designated to be euthanized because they are old, blind, incontinent, or perhaps not cute enough to be adopted. She has old horses retired from the carriage business and unadoptable pets from other rescue groups around the country. While she can’t save them all, she feels if someone had put that old, abandoned golden retriever to sleep, she could have lost her son.