It's an old cliché, but a dog really is man's best friend.
In fact, some dogs are better than best friends. How many of your best friends would give their own life up fighting a bear for you? Yeah - not many.
This is where Pete the dog comes in.
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Pete was an old boy, a rescued English Setter that was adopted by Me and My Shadow Pets - a small pet sitting and dog walking company in New York State, USA.
Whilst they were out on their daily walk (a lot of dogs take a lot of walking) the dogs accidentally disturbed a black bear which became startled and turned to attack the family.
Pete held the bear off while the other dogs were brought to safety, before the dog walker returned to scare off the bear (which is also a crazy thing to do, when you think about it, but fair play).
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Unfortunately she found that it was too late for poor Pete, who had been badly hurt by the bear. They rushed him to the animal hospital, but couldn't save him.
The company later posted on Instagram: "Today we lost our brave, old man Pete. The dogs surprised a black bear just off the trail while we were hiking this morning. It must not have heard or smelled us with the pouring rain.
"It felt threatened and turned around. Pete stepped up and held off the bear until I could get the other dogs to safety. Once I was sure they were safe, I went back and scared the bear off, but Pete was gravely injured.
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"I was able to get him back down to the main trail and, thanks to Cathi and Kate, we were able to get him in a car and to the hospital pretty quickly. He held on like a real trooper the whole time, and he was never alone in his pain.
"The x-rays revealed some pretty bad spinal damage that would mean he could never walk again, if he survived all the surgeries (not a certain thing at his age).
"We decided it was best to let him go this afternoon. Run free Pete, you no longer have all those aches and pains of old age. You had a great 18 months with us running the days away like you loved."
If you've not got a lump in your throat reading that... well, I dunno what I can do for you. Your heart is evidently suffering from broken feels.
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Tributes have been coming in from around the world after Pete's heroic actions.
Me and My Shadow Pets hope to use this as a way of showing that just because a dog is old doesn't mean he is useless.
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They tweeted: "My husband and I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of love for #petethehero. He was a senior dog that we adopted after fostering.
"His actions prove that no dog is too old to be abandoned or too lost to be loved. #oesr #rescuedogs #rainbowbridge."
Good boy, Pete. Good boy.
Featured Image Credit: Instagram / mmspetsTopics: Dog, Feels, Animals, Bear
