Sixth Sense

The next Hollywood star won't be anything like Bullet. A 15-year-old Golden Retriever with a grizzled muzzle, Bullet moves with the agility of a turtle, suffers from a heart condition and is riddled with cancer.

In short: an ideal candidate for euthanasia. Except that he belongs to Pam Sica and, for her mistress, friendship is priceless.

In April 2000, Pam learned that her beloved Bullet had a liver tumor the size of a pea. Given the patient's age, Dr. Cangro advised against surgery.

The news upsets Pam. She's lost pets before, but never a friend like Bullet. He was barely 7 weeks old when she found him in a basket on her doorstep, decorated with a red ribbon and a little card with the words: "Will you be my mommy?

Pam never had children, despite her wish, and her pets became like her little ones.

In August, the tumor grew so large that Dr. Laurence Cangro could no longer wait. She would have to operate, as internal bleeding could be fatal. But not one owner in 10 would go to this expense for such an old animal.

Pam and Troy are the exception. They spend nearly $5000 to give Bullet a chance.

Bullet comes out of the operating room alive. Even better, he woke up hungry and was back home in just a few days.

A year later, Pam has a new reason to believe in miracles. While on vacation at Walt Disney World, she discovered she was pregnant. On April 10, 2002, Troy Joseph Sica was born. But Bullet had to be prepared for this revolution. Pam gives her husband a blanket with the baby swaddled in it, with the mission of getting Bullet to sniff it and get used to the smell. Her husband places the blanket in the basket that serves as Bullet's bed.

Back at home, Pam's last worries evaporate: the dog bonds with the baby instantly.

It's around 5 a.m. on May 1, 2002. Troy sleeps peacefully between the pillows of his parents' bed while his father showers and his mother warms a bottle for him. Suddenly, Bullet bursts into the kitchen, barking and hopping like a madman. He tries to drag Pam into the bedroom.

But Pam is in no hurry to answer Bullet. She heads for the bathroom to talk to her husband, but Bullet panics, leaps up like she hasn't seen him do in years and frantically tries to lead her to the bedroom.

Pam resigns herself to following him, with the heavy step of a new mother who's up too soon. The baby is right where she left him, but his skin is an almost fluorescent blue and his limbs are limp like those of a sound doll. Only a gurgling sound reveals that he's still alive.

Troy rushes out, pats him on the back. Pam calls 911. The alarm goes off: extreme respiratory distress. Then Damon Alberts, an ambulance technician who lives nearby, turns up, followed by his colleagues. The baby's head was too small for the oxygen mask, and the paramedics struggled to direct the flow of pressurized gas to his nose and mouth. A minute into the manoeuvre, the baby's face begins to turn pink: the lungs start to work again, but the baby is not out of the woods yet.

Taken by ambulance to hospital, he had to be resuscitated a second time. He was then transferred to the paediatric ward, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. He spent 4 days on a ventilator and received antibiotics by infusion for 2 weeks.

He'll lead a normal life and remain in perfect health as long as he wears his seatbelt and avoids driving after drinking," jokes Dr Thomas Biancaniello, head of the paediatric department.

Had Bullet not been so insistent, the prognosis would not have been so rosy. In newborns, the after-effects of pneumonia are often very serious," explains Dr. Marc Salzberg. The brain develops until the age of two, and oxygen deprivation affects it more during this period. After just a few minutes, anoxia can cause brain damage or even death.

How did Bullet know that little Troy was in danger?

Dogs are very sensitive to body language," notes veterinarian Dr. Marty Becker. They spend hours observing our slightest movements, listening to the rhythm of our breathing. I can well imagine this one noticing an unusual stillness, an absence of breathing, sensing danger and running to the leader of his pack - in this case, Pam - to sound the alarm.

The real miracle in this story, then, is not that Bullet guessed the distress of the newborn lying on the bed. It's that Pam agreed to extend the life of this old man two years earlier.

I gave him extra life, and he gave me extra life," she says simply.