Spokane man, 84, fell outside Stevens County cabin, was rescued by his dog

Keith Johnson was at his cabin in Stevens County when his continuous glucose monitor began beeping around 5:30 a.m.

Johnson, a diabetic, went downstairs to get some orange juice. Before he could pour himself a glass, his 13-year-old rescue dog, Gita, stood by the front door, anxious to go outside.

“She wanted to go out, so rather than go get the orange juice first, I opened the front door and walked out a few steps,” said Johnson, 84. “It was pitch black.”

As Johnson – who lives in Spokane but enjoys spending weekends at his cabin – turned to go back inside, “I suddenly got dizzy and disoriented and fell,” he said.

Reeling in pain, he attempted to crawl several times but collapsed. He lay on the ground helplessly as the sun came up, with Gita by his side.

“She came up very close to me and lay down, and I cuddled with her,” Johnson said. After some time had passed, “I asked her if she would go get help, thinking I was just indulging myself.”

But Gita took his command. She ran off into the wilderness.

Deputy Colton Wright of the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office happened to be patrolling the wooded area that morning, Sept. 25, when he spotted Gita sitting beside the highway, a couple hundred feet from Johnson’s hidden driveway entrance. It was about 11:40 a.m., and there were no people nearby.

“I came around a blind corner and saw her sitting on the side of the road,” said Wright, noting that Stevens County doesn’t have a leash law, but whenever he sees a dog wandering without a person, he tries to find their owner or encourages them to go home. “I just followed my normal instinct.”

Wright tried to get Gita to go inside his car in an effort to track down her owner, but she refused. He checked her collar for a name and address, but there was no information. So he snapped a photo of the dog and decided to ask people within a mile if they knew who she belonged to. No one did.

Gita then lay in the center of the road, and the officer “just didn’t feel right” leaving her there, he said. “She stood up and looked at me … and was like, ‘Hey, come this way.’ ”

Wright decided to follow Gita, who led him directly to her owner.

“The driveway is close to a quarter-mile long, and it’s very hidden and wooded,” said Wright, explaining that if Gita had not taken him there, he wouldn’t have seen it.

Wright saw Johnson lying on the ground outside his cabin, calling out for help.

“Boy, am I happy to see you,” Johnson told the officer. At that point, he had been there for nearly seven hours.

Right away, Wright said to Johnson: “Your dog is a hero. She saved your life today.”

“Had she gotten in my truck, I would have never found him,” said Wright, who has three dogs of his own. “With 100% certainty, she knew what she was doing.”

Wright called an ambulance and tried to make Johnson comfortable while they waited. He told him what his dog had done to help him.

“I don’t know that we would have ever found him,” said Wright, adding that the area has many predatory animals, including wolves, cougars and bears. “Being a dog lover, that dog is a hero.”

Johnson agreed.

“I was overcome with emotion, as I am every time I think about it,” Johnson said between tears. “She clearly was down there asking for help.”

Johnson believes his story – which was first reported by KREM – would have been different had Gita not gotten the officer’s attention.

“Who knows how long I could have lasted,” Johnson said.

While Johnson, who lives alone with Gita, was stunned that her efforts worked, he said he wasn’t surprised that she tried to save him.

“She is very smart,” he said, adding that he also is grateful to Wright.

“I am eternally indebted to Officer Wright,” Johnson said. “He persisted, he acted appropriately and he calmed me. My life was saved by a combination of Gita and Officer Wright.”

Wright said he’s glad he trusted Gita to guide him.

“Everything fell right into place,” he said. “I’ve got a new friend. Keith and I are talking pretty much daily. We have plans for dinner when he gets back to 100% health.”

Johnson and his late wife, Janet, got Gita, a mixed breed, from a shelter when she was a puppy in 2011.

When Johnson and Gita went to visit Janet while she was in an assisted living facility after she had fallen and broken her hip, “Gita very carefully and gently climbed up on the bed with her,” Johnson said. “Janet thought Gita was a particularly smart dog. And she was right.”

Since his wife died five years ago, Johnson and Gita have been on their own. They do everything together.

“She is a wonderful companion,” Johnson said, adding that he is retired after working 25 years as a case officer for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Johnson was taken to a hospital in Colville, where he underwent surgery for a broken hip. A member of the EMS team that took him to the hospital volunteered to keep Gita while Johnson recovered, and Johnson gratefully accepted. He spent five days at the hospital before he was relocated to a rehabilitation facility in Spokane.

Gita visits Johnson at the rehabilitation facility, which brings him immense comfort. He is working toward being able to walk again.

“I’m doing pretty well,” he said.

Johnson is looking forward to getting back on his feet, hopefully within a month or so, and being home again with Gita.

“I’m devoted to her, even more so now,” he said.