“He saved my life”: Chihuahua’s pawing alerted owner to breast cancer
Wellington: A 61-year-old dog owner from Wellington, Somerset, says her chihuahua saved her life by repeatedly pawing at her armpit — a behavior that eventually led to the early detection of breast cancer.
Kristine Richards said her dog, Flag, started the unusual behavior years ago, constantly hitting the underside of her arm with his paw. She originally dismissed it, until she noticed a small lump under her breast and began to suspect her pet was trying to tell her something.
After visiting an oncologist, Kristine was diagnosed with an aggressive form of hormone-sensitive lobular breast cancer. The disease had already spread to her lymph nodes, despite showing no other symptoms at the time.“You can’t underestimate the shock. I couldn’t take it in. I just started crying,” Kristine recalled. “It was very annoying, I must say, at the time, but then I started to wonder… I had heard that dogs could tell if there was cancer.”
The oncologist told her it is quite common for dogs to sniff out such issues.Following her diagnosis, Kristine underwent surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and drug therapy. One year later, she received the news that the cancer was in remission. Years on, it has not returned.
She says Flag also seemed to know when treatment was working. The dog stopped pawing at her arm after her first round of chemotherapy and hasn’t done it again since.“I am now in remission. I cried with relief when they told me. It was like getting to the end of a very long journey where you don’t quite know where you are going,” she said. “He saved my life. I owe my dog everything.”
Flag is now her trained assistance dog and has become something of a local celebrity. He was even named honorary town mayor of St Marychurch in Torquay, Devon. “When I got him, he wanted to chew everything. My sister said he was useless and trouble — little did she know,” Kristine said. “He is very popular, my dog. He is a little community champion and super intelligent.”
