Aww of the Day: Cop Stops Highway Traffic to Save Dog

Cujo was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Fortunately, the right cop happened along.

Cujo, a Miniature Rat Terrier with a bad hip, ran away from home one morning several days ago in La Porte, Texas. One of his owners, Jeremy Zapalac, quickly organized a search party. It started raining. Things were getting critical.  

"He hates water," Jeremy later told KHOU 11 News. 

He also said the tiny dog is named Cujo because "he's a monster, frankly," and that he's "a Napoleon type of dog. He's very short, with a very big ego." 

In any case, Cujo was out in the rain. Where, nobody knew. Until Police Officer Kyle Jones spotted Cujo huddled in the cold on the well-trafficked Spencer Highway, hatching a plan. Cujo, it seemed, was going to cross the road. 

"He’s not going to make it if I don’t do something," Jones said of the tiny dog. "When I saw [the dog] and saw the size of it, I immediately hit my lights and shut all the lanes off."

Yep, a cop shut down a highway to save the shivering little dog, who hates water. After he did that, the rest of the rescue operation was all on Cujo. Jones was worried the dog would scamper away. 

"You know how Chihuahuas [sic] are. You're not really sure if you can trust 'em or not," the officer said, laughing. "But he kind of looked at me and said, 'Man, I'm glad you're here.' He let me pick him right up. Stuck him in the back seat of the patrol car."

Cujo had tags, so he was quickly back in the arms of Jeremy Zapalac.

"I was just happy to have him back," Jeremy said. "He was all wet, he was soaked. We got him in, wrapped him up, dried him off, and he just slept in his bed all day." 

Which might have been the end of this story, had not a passing motorist -- well, one of the stopped motorists -- pulled out a camera and snapped a photo of the cop sweet-talking Cujo over to his car. She posted the the photo to Reddit, along with the line "This police officer stopped traffic, in the rain, to save this wet and limping little dog. Faith in humanity.... Restored," and the Internet took it from there.  

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