Dog saves life of owner who mistook snake bite as cat scratch

Julie, a German Shepherd is the talk of town after she attacked and killed a snake which bit her owner Vishwa Kumari, a higher secondary school teacher at Ambalapuzha in Alappuzha district.

If it was not for Julie’s timely act, Vishwa Kumari’s life would have been at real risk as she never knew that she was bit by a cobra. Only when Julie found the snake and attacked it, Vishwa Kumari noticed that a wound on her fingers was from the snake bite and not from a cat scratch as she believed.

The incident occurred on February 21 evening when Vishwa Kumari was cleaning the premises of her house at Ambalapuzha. As she moved flower pots on the portico of her house to clean the area, something pricked her fingers. She noticed a small cut and blood oozing from it. She thought that a cat, which was there, might have scratched her. She went inside the house and washed the wound with soap and water.

Meanwhile, Julie, who was standing at the portico, started barking continuously and when Vishwa Kumari came out of the house, she saw Julie fighting with a cobra at the spot where the flower pots were kept. On seeing this, Vishwa Kumari checked the wound and noticed that it resembled a cobra bite. She cried for help and people who were nearby rushed to the spot and immediately shifted Vishwa Kumari to Alappuzha Medical College. “Julie saved my wife’s life. We would never have considered it to be a snake bite if Julie hadn’t noticed the snake. Vishwa Kumari is recuperating at medical college and she is all well,” said her husband V C Madhu.

Julie was also lucky to not get a bite from the snake though she attacked and killed it. “Julie has been restless for the last few days. Every night when we watch TV, she used to come inside the house and sit near me. But on the day before the incident, she didn’t come inside the house but stayed at the doors keenly watching the portico. We thought that she might be annoyed with a cat that roamed our premises. Now we know why she didn’t come inside. She was guarding the house after she saw the snake slithering into our compound,” Madhu said, adding that Julie, who is now five-year-old, has been with his family since she was four-month-old. “We are really blessed to have Julie as our family member,” Madhu added.