One Loyal Dog! Texas Rancher’s Dog Hitches Ride On Side Of Ambulance To Stay With Owner

An 85-year-old rancher from San Angelo, Texas, learned exactly how loyal his 4-year-old dog, Buddy, was when he was in need of an ambulance.

According to Fox23, the rancher, J.R. Nicholson, became dizzy, so his ranch hand, Brian Wright, called an ambulance. When the ambulance arrived, they loaded Nicholson and headed to Hill Country Memorial Hospital. However, on the way to the hospital, after driving about 20 miles, the ambulance was flagged down by another motorist. The motorist told the ambulance crew that a dog was riding on the side step. The ambulance pulled over and put the dog inside.

Buddy was the dog in question. Buddy had hitched a ride on the side of the ambulance when his owner was taken away. He road on the side for approximately 20 miles. Wright, the ranch hand, drove separately. At the hospital, medical staff told him about Buddy’s trip. Wright retrieved the dog from the ambulance, then later drove his boss and Buddy home.

The San Angelo Standard-Times notes that Buddy is a 35-pound Beagle mix. Tanner Brown, an emergency medical technician, said that the it “was a crazy ordeal.”

Brown notes that once the ambulance was notified of the dog riding on the exterior, “we didn’t have anything else to do but to load the dog up and put him in the ambulance and take him to the ER with us.”

Wright notes that when he found out about Buddy’s journey, he realized the dog was “quite the animal.”

“Two things go through your mind in a split second. First, what could have happened to (Buddy), and second, you realize he is quite an animal.”

Wright described Buddy as a playfully curious dog who likes rides on the tractor back on the ranch. It seems that the tractor riding came in handy for his ambulance side step adventure.

The ambulance crew says that aside from riding on the side of the ambulance, Buddy was very curious when inside the ambulance.

“It was kind of funny. We were inside [the hospital] and he had jumped onto the control switch and turned on the sirens and the lights. We didn’t know what was going on.”

Though the dog was a bit mischievous while in the ambulance, Nicholson said Friday that he thinks a lot of his dog.

“I was impressed. He didn’t have to go to the hospital with me, but he did. I had two dogs (before Buddy), but I had to put one of them down. He came along at just the right time. He’s now a member of the family.”

Nicholson notes that Buddy is a rescue dog. Though Buddy is thoroughly loyal to Nicholson, he was only adopted a short four months ago. It seems that Nicholson truly found “man’s best friend” in the Mason shelter.