A dog once deemed by a shelter as “unadoptable” became a hero to the family who rescued him after the barking dog scared off a man inside their house planning to abduct their three children.
Edgar, the Lambert family’s 80-pound treeing walker coonhound, awoke the family Sunday night with horrendous, rage-filled howls, Pennlive reported.
Thom Lambert heard the sound of footsteps in the kitchen, but by the time he got there, all he found was a broken window and an open door, Pennlive reported.
He checked the rooms, and his three daughters, aged 3 to 8, were still in bed.
When police arrived, Lambert mentioned it was Edgar who alerted him.
"Edgar was just there on the floor sleeping while the cops were clearing the house with their guns drawn," Lambert told Pennlive. "And the cops are like, 'So this is the dog that you're saying went nuts?'"
Police arrested a suspect who said he had been in the neighborhood looking for unsupervised children, Pennlive reported.
Thomas Dewald, 20, was arrested and charged in connection with the abduction of a 4-year-old girl. Police said the girl escaped from a wooden box when Dewald went to work, Pennlive reported.
Police said Dewald told investigators he paused once Edgar started barking, trying to decide if he should wait or run, Pennlive reported. He told investigators he heard the anger in the barks and decided to leave.
The typically docile dog had only recently been adopted by the Lamberts. He had spent most of his four years on the streets and was deemed "unadoptable" by a West Virginia shelter, Pennlive reported.
"It's so damn impossible right now to think we got this dog for any other reason than it was meant to be," Lambert told Pennlive. "Everything had to happen in just the right way for him to be there at that moment."
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