TEMPLE, Texas — There's a 10-year-old hero right in the heart of Temple, TX. Antonio Thomas is a 4th grader who saved a dog's life after finding it tied to a broken tree limb after the winter storm in February, 2023.
Thomas first heard the dog barking when he left for school.
"I thought it was just a stray dog because we live in a neighborhood with stray dogs all over the place," Thomas said. "I told mom that there's a dog barking over there. She said it's probably stray dog, so I just left it alone."
When Thomas was finished with school, he heard the same bark.
"I was like, 'Mom, I'm going to check over there' because I heard the same bark," Thomas said. "I went to check over there, and there's just this dog that was tied in a knot."
In a matter of seconds, Thomas rushed back to his house to tell his mom, Amber Baker. Baker ran out and grabbed some scissors to cut the the leash that was tying the dog to the limb.
The dog wasn't easy to find at first. She was in a hidden area behind a bunch of trees, but her big bark helped the family find her.
"We live right behind the railroad tracks," Baker said, "the fact that we were able to hear her."
The care didn't stop once the dog was found.
"I had to sit her in front of the heater for an hour to get her to finally stop shaking and then we gave her a bath and I cut her nails," Baker said.
The family wasn't planning to keep the dog, but they knew it was a match made in heaven.
"She didn't bark at us," Thomas said. "She was just scared, didn't bite us. She just let us pick her up."
"I didn't have a choice," Baker said.
"Cookie" is now a part of the family.