Dog Saves 2-Day Old Baby!

A dog in Nairobi, Kenya proved that it is truly man's best friend by rescuing an abandoned baby from a forest.

The baby girl, christened 'Angel' by staff of Kenyatta National Hospital , the largest refferal hospital in Kenya, where she is being attended to, is suspected to have been dumped by its mother.

Ironically the dog was lactating. It was said to have been foraging for food for its puppies in the nearby forest when it stumbled on the child.

When the dog brought 'Angel' at its owner's house at around 11 am, the infant was wrapped in an old tattered short. In true motherly fashion the dog, together with one of its puppies, proceeded to keep the infant guard.

Surprisingly, she was unharmed despite the fact that the dog had crossed a busy highway and passed through a barbed wire fence to get to its master's home.

"I was going about my job in the house when boys playing nearby told me that there was a baby crying next to the dogs," said Linet Gogany, the dog owner.

She then approached the two resting dogs with the baby protectively placed between them. There, she found one of the infant's legs dangling out of the dirty black short. Fearing that it was dead, she raised an alarm, attracting neighbours.

Among the people who arrived at the scene was 19-year-old Ms Shamila, who works as a domestic worker. "When I discovered that the baby was breathing I scooped it up from the dirty shorts and took it for cleaning and feeding," said Shamila who was still shocked by the experience.

She said that it was by God's grace that the baby was still alive because its umbilical cord was full of tiny white maggots. She was bathed, given first aid and fed before being taken to the local police station.

The incident attracted curious onlookers some of who begged to be given the baby for safe keeping. The dog, one of the many staying with the owners, has neither a name nor is it trained.

"This dog was born here about five years ago," said Linet Gogany, the dog owner. 'Angel' was taken to a local police station where a statement was recorded and her particulars taken before being transferred to the hospital.

According to Dr Eugene, a registrar at the hospital, upon admission, the infant was dehydrated and cried a lot. "Apart from a high fever she is clinically stable. She is also feeding well," explained the Dr.

He added that her navel had to be cleaned with surgical spirit to avoid further infection. He estimated that 'Angel' must have stayed in the forest for two days. "Had she stayed longer than that she would have died," he said.