Bitter-sweet rescue leads to award for devoted dog

A HERO dog saved the life of its owner after he suffered a heart attack, only to see him die three days later.

Rhoderick Milligan, 64, was walking his dog Hudson in the countryside near to his Broxburn home when he suffered a massive heart attack.

After he fell to the ground in the remote area, the six-year-old lurcher relentlessly licked his face, barked and provoked him until he regained consciousness.

Mr Milligan, who was a year away from retirement, then walked back with the aid of his dog, singing its praises for saving his life, only to pass away a couple of days later.

He had returned to the family home on Nichol Road in March, saying he had collapsed after suffering "chest pains" but had recovered.

His wife Marilyn, 55, insisted he was checked out, at which point medics discovered the extent of the heart attack and revealed he may not ultimately live through it.

But in recognition of the role Hudson played in helping Mr Milligan's initial recovery, the Dog Aid Society of Scotland was due to present him with a devotion award today.

And Mrs Milligan is grateful for the extra few days with her late husband that Hudson's intervention secured. She said: "The area they were walking in was so remote that you could walk for miles and miles and not see a soul for hours.

"It is my belief, and my husband shared this, that if it hadn't been for him he would just have lain there.

"It says something about him that he came back complaining of just chest pains when in fact he'd had a major heart attack."

Mr Milligan, who was a farmer before taking on jobs as a taxi driver for the disabled and a cleaner at the Almondvale Centre in Livingston, was in good shape for his age, despite being a smoker.

Mrs Milligan added: "Because of this it was totally out of the blue for us, we'd never had so much as a scare, but the doctors said it was ultimately down to the smoking.

"But you'd never have known it, he was an ex-farmer and was all muscle, he was used to carrying fenceposts for miles across the Pentlands in the middle of winter. I think it is that fitness that got him down the hill and gave us the extra few days with him. We hadn't had Hudson that long, but I thought I should contact the society so he could get some recognition of what he had done."

Mr Milligan is also survived by his son Ewan.