Blackie, the Dog Savior

            “Hear me cry, Oh God; listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I; for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.” Psalms 61:1-3

            The strongest tropical storm in 2011, Sendong, has killed hundreds of people, left hundreds missing, and displaced thousands of refugees with nothing in their possession.

            Cagayan de Oro was left with a tragic story that is now part of history. But one story might remain in the hearts of the people as an encouragement. It is the story of the dog savior.

            Blackie is a three-year-old female dog owned by Nilo Yecyec and his family.

Nilo recounted the moment he thought his daughter Jennylou went missing. It was when heavy rain brought by Typhoon Sendong came pouring down the roofs of the unknowing homes.

At about seven in the evening, rain started to fall. By midnight, the flood started to roll. His wife Malou was awakened by the rushing flood and has awoken her family for them to leave their one-story house for higher ground at about past midnight.

They went to the welcoming two-story house of their neighbor Bebeng Macarandang who is a widow with five children – a boy and four girls. But the flood has already reached the second floor of the house that Nilo was forced to work on breaking the GI sheet roofing open so they could go up the roof.

            Both families went up the rooftop but the three children of Bebeng who were in the roof first lost their footings and were swept away by the powerful flood. Nita, her daughter who was holding his son also fell and lost his son’s grip but was later able to get reunited.

Nilo held his daughter’s hand and had lost it. But after some time, tossed by the flood, Nilo, Jennylou, and Blackie were brought back together again. And so from Isla de Oro (Mabini), they floated and were swept to del Pilar and to Consolacion and it was where Nilo lost his daughter’s grip for the second time.

 And it was Jennylou herself who was able to tell the story of what had really happened.

Jennylou saw her father drifting away with her brother Mark John and was followed by her mother Malou. Then she followed. She saw his father and brother sunk and felt her mother’s grip loosening.

Malou got parted with her daughter but was able to find her son Mark John. Together they swam toward a Santol tree to escape the rushing current.

            After Jennylou had lost his father’s grip for the second time, all the while she was with Blackie. She held her dog tight and rode her in the water like a raft.

The flood swept them to Camiguin. There she saw a boy older than her riding on something that looked like a wooden raft. And the boy had managed to help her up.

When she was about to reach for Blackie, she saw that the dog was sinking. She hoped the dog would surface in the water, but it didn’t.

Jennylou said it was already morning when she could no longer count the number of floating dead bodies – babies, children, and adults. And a sea of corpses that stretched as far as her eyes could see had already surrounded her.

For some reason, the raft where she and the boy was using was sinking but the boy had found them another.

After the perilous evening, a rescue boat came in heed of their cry for help. In the rescue boat, there wasn’t any food and they were brought to Barangay Carmen frail and hungry.

And she was finally able to find her family, rejoicing in her return and was really happy that she was alive and they were all safe.

This one story only showed how deeply moving it was even for a little dog to be the instrument of God for help. The dog had sacrificed her life to save her master. Just like God sacrificed His life to save His people from sins.