Dogs are regarded as man’s best friend, and there are many reasons why. It is also a pretty respectable position considering all the animals that man has interacted with and domesticated down the years. Horses, cats, parrots… there is an endless list of animals, but dogs are special. They’re different in how they love, respect, and listen to their owners. For Ivan, his dog, Binka, was certainly his buddy whom he always took a stroll through the town with. It was a routine trip that they regularly took, so Binka’s behavior on this trip was strange. His owner had never experienced this before.
Although we hear about strange things happening in many places in the world, especially rural areas. This story of this dog is different and special in a way you would not believe. Ivan, a 56-year-old man, went on his daily walk around the old town he lived. He had spent his entire life in this town and now lived with only his dog, Binka. Walking through the town together was a ritual they did daily and today was no exception. They walked peacefully through the old, ragged, and abandoned houses taking in the winter cold.
Ivan always felt a profound peace every time he walked through town, but with this peace came a strange sadness. He remembered this town used to be boisterous, filled with smiles and children running down the street, happy. What was left now was a quiet, eerie, and empty town. The cemetery was a mirror of what the town had become – quiet and devoid of life. Someone new had just died and been buried. Ivan could see the grave looked fresh.
A young woman in the village had died a few days back; it was probably her. The town was too far away, and doctors couldn’t come there often, so many people guessed the cause of her death. It was sad to lose the woman. Not just because it’s always sad for someone to die, but because the town had just very few youths. Ivan was still staring at the grave while walking when Binka stopped abruptly. His ears perched as if searching for a signal. And just in the twinkle of an eye, he dashed towards the dead woman’s grave and started digging and barking.
Ivan couldn’t believe what was happening. For a second, he couldn’t move and wondered what could have possessed his dog to behave in such a strange manner. He had no choice but to follow his best friend to the grave, and he desperately tried to stop his dog from digging up a corpse. But it was too late.
“Down, Binka!” Ivan yelled at his dog, but he wouldn’t listen. Binka looked determined to get to the bottom of the ground. He tried to restrain Binka, but his efforts were fruitless. He was an old man now, and Binka was a bug dog. The dog kept on digging and barking while Ivan tried his best to restrain him to stop the damage he had caused. Ivan was embarrassed. What would the parents of this poor woman think if they saw their daughter’s grave in such a state? He had begun to think of how he would close the grave back once his dog finished. He was still deep in his thought when Binka suddenly stopped – he had reached the coffin and looked up at his owner expectantly. The look was the look of his dog asking him to open the coffin. WHAT??
He looked at his dog, shocked at this absurd suggestion. As if it was not enough that he had dragged a dead woman’s corpse from the earth, he wanted him to open it? But Binka was relentless. When he saw his owner wouldn’t open the coffin, he began yapping at the coffin with his paws, hoping to rip it open. Since he couldn’t stop or restrain his dog, he thought about distracting him with a stick – Binka’s favorite game of catch. So, he threw a stick, and just at that moment, Ivan heard something that made him shiver to his bones – and it wasn’t the cold winter evening that made him shake.
The sound was soft and faint, and he could barely hear amid the barking, groans, and scratches from his desperate dog. But under the ground, he could hear weak, dry thumps. Ivan bent down immediately and put his ears over the coffin, and the thumping became clearer. As the occupant of the coffin knew he was close, it followed with a muffled scream of “Help!” He had never seen or heard of this before. Ivan was shocked and dumbfounded, he started to sweat on a cold winter evening, and his forehead was filled with sweat. How on earth was this person buried alive?
Thankfully, Ivan could break the coffin. He knew this was not a matter of life and death, and he needed to act quickly. He tried forcefully yanking the top of the coffin off, but it was sealed tightly with angry-looking nails. He kept on trying, but the nails wouldn’t give way. Ivan looked around to see if he would find anything to break the coffin with but couldn’t find anything.
He put his ears back on the coffin and began assuring the woman that help was near. It was a woman’s voice, and judging by how weak her voice sounded by the second, she was in immediate need of oxygen, or it was curtains for her. He knew he had to act immediately.
Then he put his feet on the squeaking coffin and mustered all his 56-year-old strength to rip the coffin door until it finally broke open. Immediately he got the door open, and the woman in there sat up, coughing and puffing. She had almost died due to the very little oxygen available in the coffin. Ivan heaved a sigh of relief. He had just exerted a lot of energy and needed to rest, but he still needed more strength. The woman in the coffin had almost died, so she was very weak. So, with great care, he helped her out of the coffin. He lifted her into his arms, walking as fast as possible to the small hospital – the only one in the village.
As Ivan walked with the woman in his arms and Binka walking closely beside him, he couldn’t help but wonder how this had happened. So many questions ran through his mind, but she was too weak to answer any right now. All he needed to do was get her to help as quickly as possible.
Within minutes he arrived at the local hospital. They had no doctors, but a few nurses were around and began to take care of her. They thanked Ivan and his dog for this great help. She could have died had they been a minute late. They thanked Binka, especially for his vigilance and for being a good dog. Ivan knew Binka deserved a huge meal tonight. But that was not the end…
Ivan realized that his dog, Binka, had not only saved one life but TWO! The young woman was pregnant and had suffered from low blood pressure. This caused her to faint, and everyone around at the time concluded she had died. So, they decided to bury her without any examination or medical guidance. When she regained consciousness, all she saw was darkness and a shortage of air. That was when she realized she had been buried in the coffin. She was incredibly grateful to Ivan and Binka for saving her life and her baby’s life too. Without them, she would have lost her life and that of her unborn son.
Dogs are great companions and very vigilant. This is an incredible story that shows how Binka saved the life of not one but two people.
