Truck driver Bernard Plott, 49, and his Jack Russell terrier, King, are inseparable.
“He goes where daddy goes,” Potts told the Connecticut Post. King even accompanies Plott on all the long hauls.
Plott is s a driver for Alabama Motor Express. On his route from Macon, Georgia, to Bozrah, Connecticut, Plott was driving northbound on Interstate 95, when he says he started to feel very ill. He pulled over in the rest area near exit 21 and called 911.
Plott had suffered a mild heart attack.
Emergency personnel arrived and encouraged Plott to go to the hospital. He resisted. He didn’t want to leave King behind.
“He really didn’t want to go, because he didn’t want to leave his dog,” an EMT on the scene, Roberta O’Donnell, told the Connecticut Post.
Emergency personnel on the scene, finally convinced Plott to go be evaluated at the hospital. Reluctantly, Plott left King in the air conditioned truck. O’Donnell promised Plott that she would take care of King, if he was admitted into the hospital.
“I gave him my cell number and said, ‘If you’re going to be admitted, give me a call and I’ll make sure your dog is taken care of;” O’Donnell said.
Plott was admitted into the hospital and spent three days recovering. True to her word, O’Donnell took King to her house and took care of him.
O’Donnell said she understood that Plott was stressed, and that she knew that if she took care of King, it would ease some of Plott’s worries.
While Plott was mending, another driver picked up his load, made the produce delivery and returned his truck.
When Plott was finally released, O’Donnel picked him up from the hospital and took him and King to their rig.
Plott said he is grateful for O’Donnell’s kindness.
“She didn’t have to do that,” he said. However, he wasn’t surprised that she took to King quickly.
“Once you see this dog, you’ll just fall in love with him,” Plott said.