At a recent adoption event, a three-year-old Lab and Pit Bull mix named Sienna made a beeline for a man she had never met and placed her paw gently on his leg.
Jackie Poppe, a volunteer with Friends of Campbell County Animal Control, said Sienna suddenly pulled hard on her leash the moment she saw him, something she had never done before.
The event, held at a local church alongside a yard sale, was filled with several vendors. Sienna had been calmly greeting attendees from booth to booth when she spotted the man and rushed straight toward him.
Poppe tried to pull her away, but Sienna refused to leave his side.
Moments later, the man’s wife, who had been browsing nearby, returned and immediately sensed something was wrong.
That day, Josh began showing signs of a myoclonic seizure; his eyes were jerking and fluttering. Kristen later realized he had forgotten to take his medication that morning.
Standing at 6 foot 9, Josh is “a big guy,” and they were worried he might collapse in front of the crowd.
Thankfully, the couple lived just around the corner from the church. Kristen quickly brought him home and got him his medication in time.
Because of that, and likely thanks to the vagus nerve stimulator implanted in his chest, which can deliver a burst of stimulation to help control seizures, Josh was able to avoid a full-blown episode.
Kristen believes that if he hadn’t gotten home to rest when he did, he likely would have experienced a full convulsive seizure.
However, research has shown that both trained and untrained dogs are capable of detecting seizures, thanks to their powerful sense of smell.According to these studies, they can identify specific chemical compounds in a person’s sweat that appear before or during an epileptic episode.
Poppe said they had always known Sienna was “lovable,” but had no idea she might have the ability to detect seizures.
After the shelter shared the story on their Facebook page, adoption requests began pouring in.
Several applications came from families with epileptic loved ones, but most of them had cats. Unfortunately, Sienna, a Lab and Pit Bull mix, doesn’t do well with cats.
She was initially drawn to Sienna because she resembled her late dog, Johnwood, who had passed away just a month earlier.
After learning about Sienna’s special ability, Shannon and her family were even more eager to adopt her, especially since her 28-year-old son, Ransom, has epilepsy, though he hasn’t had a seizure in several years.
Shannon called the timing “unbelievable.” Her younger son, Ethan, had also been grieving the loss of his pet rabbit that same week and had taken their previous dog’s death particularly hard.
Shannon and her husband picked up Sienna a few days later and she has been “settling in really, really well.”
Since arriving in her forever home, Sienna also hasn’t left Ethan’s side.
