As Rich Armstrong lay helpless in a Modesto parking lot last week after being struck by a truck, his service dog and devoted companion, Emma, went on a mission to save him.
Armstrong and Emma were in a movie theater parking lot when a speeding pickup truck hit both of them, throwing them 30 feet and destroying Armstrong’s wheelchair in the process.
What happened next is nothing short of remarkable. Emma picked herself up, and when she noticed that Armstrong was incapacitated, she ran. Lucky for Armstrong, she knew exactly where she needed to go – Emma made her way around the theater, found her way inside and searched the lobby until she found Armstrong’s wife.
“She ran up to her and gave her the leash and tugged her and pulled her all the way out here to me,” Armstrong said in an interview on Monday. And even though Emma has only been a part of his life for eight short months, the bond they have formed is obviously strong. “I can’t live without her she can’t live without me,” he said.
