It was 2:20 a.m. and pitch dark when Thelma Postacales of Millsboro, Delaware, heard her dog, Oscar, barking at the end of the bed.

“I kept saying, ‘Shush, Oscar, shush; there’s no one out there’ but he would not stop barking,” she said. “Next thing I know, he jumps off the bed and keeps on barking. I turned on the bathroom light so I could see where I was going, and there was George, on the floor. I was terrified.”

What Thelma did not know was that George, her husband of 30 years, had risen at about 2:00 a.m. to use the restroom. When Oscar was finally able to wake Thelma (who wears a hearing aid during the day,) George had been unconscious for at least 15 minutes.

After calling 911, Thelma and Oscar waited for the ambulance. The doctors later found that George had experienced a cardiac episode and require a stent. Today he is home and feeling much better – all to the credit of Oscar, an 18-month old Dachshund/Schnauzer mix they adopted from the Delaware SPCA.

“We’ve been married for 30 years and never had a dog – never even wanted one,” explained George. “Then we moved to Delaware from Florida. Our neighbor has a small dog that loves to come over when he hears me tinkering in the garage, and we really started to think about it.”

They went to the Delaware SPCA looking for a very small dog (like a Pekinese), but there were none in the shelter. The attendant did mention they had a slightly larger dog – Oscar – a gentle pup who had been raised in a family with children that could no longer care for it.

The Postacales fell in love. So, after recovering from kennel cough (a non-life-threatening dog “cold” most dogs get in confinement) and a routine eye surgery, Oscar came home to the Postacales.

“He walked in, sniffed around, jumped up on the end of our bed and lay down as if he had always lived here,” said George. Thelma added. “Who knew he would save George’s life just weeks later? Can’t you just see the hand of God in this?”

Thelma and George know something about life’s serendipitous moments: they met on a blind date set up by Thelma’s sister on New Year’s Eve all those years ago.

Whether it was luck or fate, Oscar now has a happy home in a neighborhood where he can walk (“Or really, he struts, just like the dog in the old Kibbles & Bits commercial,” according to George,) play with his new friend the Pekinese and another Labrador down the block, and curl up at the end of a safe, warm bed. Thelma and George are just glad it is their bed. They are more than happy to share it with their pint-size hero, Oscar.