I couldn’t imagine my life without him, because everywhere I look, he’s right by me. I’m just really happy that he’s back here.

Compassionate viewers, welcome to today’s Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants featuring the touching story of a family’s deep love for their beloved canine companion Blazer.

The whole neighborhood has watched Blazer grow up with our children.

We are so happy to have him home, so thankful that not just our community, but other people from other states wanted to help us with Blazer. It’s just amazing.

Almost everyone in the town of Port Orchard, Washington, USA has now heard of the brave Border Collie Blazer, best friend of the Roller family’s young son Daniel. To the townspeople, the intelligent canine is a respected hero who once helped to find a local child who was lost in the woods. The seven-year-old Blazer and his ten-year-old caregiver Daniel share a loving bond and spend lots of time with each other.

Daniel got him when he was five years old. And they’ve been together ever since.

Wherever Daniel was, there’s Blazer, in the woods, around the street, anywhere, front yard, anywhere.

In August 2010, to the Roller family’s distress, Blazer disappeared on the very same day that Katie Roller had a serious auto accident, where the family car was totaled and her injuries were so severe that it almost resulted in an amputation of her leg. While Ms. Roller was in the hospital, Blazer didn’t come home that day or the following one.

He would stay out maybe one night and come home. But after three days, it was too long.

We knew something was wrong.

We were worried that something had happened to him. So we put up some flyers at the school and the grocery store, and the convenience store and telephone poles around the neighborhood, hoping that someone had seen him.

After being discharged from the hospital, Katie Roller joined her family and local residents in searching for Blazer.

Okay Daniel, Let's cut this out. Make another flyer and you can put this at the end of the road and hit all the telephone poles.

I'll make more, you go and put it at that end of the street and that one at that end of the street and by the time you get home we'll have more for you okay? (okay) Sound good? (yes) Alright.

Halo. Hi. I saw your lost dog flyer. I just saw him now and I think I have seen Blazer hanging around the school yard.

Down by the school. Is that where you said you saw my dog?

I will call you again if I see him.

We're going to head down right now!

Hey we've got Blazer and he's got something tied around his foot. I need you to get some scissors immediately, please. We're on the way home okay? Please. Alright, Bye bye.

Let's get the bad leg now. Let's work on that one. Okay. Ready. Cut it off the bad leg. Okay. I'm going to hold him okay? You do the bad leg, ready, go. Ready. Go. Okay. There you go buddy, okay.

Alright, we have to rush him to the vet now, okay buddy? Okay, buddy, come on.

Hi Daniel, what's up?

Hi is Mike here? I want to sell him some video games.

Did you get a lot of help from your neighbors?

Oh yes. We got people that just knew us from walking up and down the street, pushing the kids in the stroller, from when they were little, growing up, and just seeing us walk up and down. They’d honk and wave “hi.” They knew who we were, and where we lived, and so they were really helpful. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have found him.

Fortunately, within hours of posting the flyers, a couple who live near the Sidney Glen Elementary School, about a kilometer from the Rollers’ home, called to say they had spotted Blazer limping around in the school yard.

We found him with the zip-ties on his front leg and his back (leg); his back leg looked really swollen and his paws were spread apart. (Yes) And his back paw was really spread apart.

Blazer was filled with joy to see the familiar faces of David and Daniel Roller and managed to slowly hobble to his caring family.

He was relieved to see us.

I was really happy to see him. And then we picked him up and put him in our van. We told the other people thank you for watching him and making sure he didn’t wander off into the road. Then once we passed Sidney Glen (Elementary School) on the way to our house, my dad called my mom and kept on telling her to go get scissors because we were trying to cut the zip-ties off.

His back paw was black and blue. We immediately cut the zip-ties off the front paw. The back paw was very difficult to cut off because the tissue was four times the size it should be. We finally got it cut off. And my sister and I rushed him to the animal hospital.

At the animal hospital Katie Roller were told that the only way to save Blazer was to amputate his leg and that it would cost about US$4,000 for the operation and related medical expenses. The Rollers were experiencing very challenging times, especially since Katie had just been in the car accident and could not work and Mr. Roller’s painting business had been affected by an on-going economic recession.

They stabilized him, gave him pain medication, and prep for surgery that next morning. And then the next morning, his leg was amputated. And we worked out a payment plan with the vet clinic.

I came home to tell Daniel that we were going to be able to keep his dog and (yes) my son was so happy, we were just excited, and then we had to figure out how we were going to come up with some money.

Young Daniel responded immediately by formulating a plan to help pay for Blazer’s veterinary bills.

When I broke the news to Daniel, the first thing he did was he went up to his bedroom, grabbed his snowboard and grabbed his X-Box (game console). It’s like “Alright, let’s go sell all our stuff.”

He went door-to-door selling his video games, trying to raise money to save his dog.

He’s a very selfless child. He definitely thinks about other people. When the big (2004) tsunami hit, he gave up his birthday (presents) and raised money for the Red Cross. He had a big swimming party and invited everyone, invited the whole school. He had his party at the high school and invited everybody he knew and said, “Hey, I don’t want a birthday present; donate to the Red Cross.”

And I think he was six when that happened so he’s just been a very selfless child and saving his dog was just an instant thought in his mind. He’s like, “Well, I’ve got to save my dog.” And I was really surprised and proud that he didn’t care about his video games.

He loves his video games, believe me.

Yes, he loves his video games and he just wanted to make money and save his dog.

I really love Blazer and I’d give up my TV, my X-Box, everything I have, just to save him.

In addition to Daniel’s caring contribution which included selling his bike, Katie Roller made a tremendous sacrifice by parting with her wedding ring.

I have a wedding band that was not soldered to my engagement ring and it’s the first thing that went. It was loaded with diamonds. sold it, went straight to the vet, put that US$700 down and from there we were trying to sell laptops. We got rid of our brand new laptop. He was trying to get rid of his motorcycle. We were just trying to sell everything we could think of. It was worth it. I totally would do it again to save my dog.

A local newspaper featured an article about the family’s situation and as a result people in the community and nationwide generously donated the funds to fully pay for Blazer’s procedure.

Moved to tears upon hearing Blazer's story, Supreme Master Ching Hai offered US$4,000 to help out the family, and sent gifts including vegan chocolates and her international #1 best sellers “The Birds in My Life,” “The Dogs in My Life” and “The Noble Wilds,” as well as several other books, DVDs and CDs. She also provided vegan dog treats, food and toys for Blazer and an electronic keyboard and bicycle for Daniel along with lots of hugs and kisses for them both.

This is for Blazer.

(All right!) Blazer gets some toys.

Do you want a toy, (Blazer?)

Do you want a toy now?

Can you open this for Blazer?

Supreme Master Ching Hai also asked our local Association members to give Katie Roller a new wedding-style ring from her SM jewelry collection to express her gratitude and love to the Rollers for saving Blazers’ life.

Oh, thank you so very much. Isn’t that beautiful, Christie? Oh, my goodness. That is beautiful!

I would like to say a special thank you to Supreme Master Ching Hai for her generosity and loving support that she had sent to my family. Her generosity is just amazing! I am completely dumbfounded that somebody loves my family and loves my dog as much as I do, and she wants to help my family and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you so very much for your kindness, your loving support and your prayers. Thank you very much.

I’d like to say a really special thank you to Supreme Master Ching Hai for giving our family this wonderful time and giving Blazer all types of food and toys and she’s really a good person and she should be especially thanked.

I appreciate this so much. We can put a fence up for him. (And) give him that back wheel that he needs so he doesn’t have to put so much weight on his leg that’s hurting him, and get him back into shape. We appreciate this so much.

(You’re welcome.) This is wonderful.

Expressing further concern for the family, Supreme Master Ching Hai asked to be updated on how the Rollers were doing. Blazer is recovering well under his family’s loving care!

We bought him home one day after surgery. He’s doing really good. We have to get him a wheel to get him up and moving again, and get some exercise going for him and we’re going to build some ramps for him, because he can’t make it up the stairs anymore. But he’s really happy, he’s happy to be home. The first day we brought him home, he was happy. (Right)

He knew where he was. My son asked to move his bedroom downstairs so he could sleep with his dog now. So, he’s moved into the living room. But that way they can sleep together every night like they used to.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated on how Blazer’s doing and the care he’s going to receive from your donations. Thank you very much.

Our sincere thanks go to the Rollers for showing their community through their benevolent actions that our animal companions are truly our family members as well as to the people of Port Orchard, Washington and others in the USA for quickly coming together to pay for Blazer’s veterinary bills. May all be inspired by this story of kindness and selfless devotion and let us always treat each and every animal friend with love and respect.

Happy viewers, thank you for joining us today on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. Coming up next is Enlightening Entertainment after Noteworthy News. May all beings be embraced with Heaven’s everlasting love.