They don’t care if you are tall or short, thin or fat, black or white.

They aren’t interested in where you came from, how you got there or where you are going.

It doesn’t matter what kind of home you live in, or whether you are a doctor, a teacher or a grocery store clerk.

It just doesn’t make any difference. Their love can’t be bought, sold or bargained for.

A dog’s loyalty knows no boundaries, it has no restrictions, and it sees no differences among people.

A dog only knows when he is loved, and what they get, they give in return ten-fold.

Many stories of heroism have circulated through the years, and they aren’t all of the human variety.

A number of heroic acts have been performed by dogs.

That’s because a dog who knows he is cared for (and even most who don’t) is willing to go that extra mile to be sure their owners and other furry friends are protected.

Take Brutis for example. He is a golden retriever who suffered a near-fatal bite while saving an infant from a coral snake.

Then there is Moti, a German shepherd who distracted an intruder and took a bullet for his owners.

In Canada, a dog saved an 11-yearold boy by throwing itself in between the youth and a leaping cougar. Ironically, the dog, which saved its owner, is named Angel.

In Kenya, there is a report of a stray dog that found an abandoned newborn infant wrapped in plastic in a field. The dog carried the baby across a busy road and through a barbed-wire fence and placed it gently among its litter of puppies for safe keeping until help – in a human form – arrived.

There also is the story of Eve, a Rottweiler who pulled her owner, a paraplegic, from a burning car. Eve dragged the woman to a nearby ditch, just far enough away to avoid the vehicle’s explosion.

There are hundreds of tales just like these of heroic animals who save their masters and other family members: intervening against wild animals, serving as guide dogs, leading owners from burning buildings, and rescuing them from potentially deadly situations.

The thing about an animal is that it is loyal to the end. Dogs don’t stop to think of the consequences when they run into a burning building or step in between their master and a snake.

And it just boggles my mind that some dogs are so unappreciated and unloved.

There are those whose dogs are tied to a clothesline or are without human contact in a yard all by themselves 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and left out in the elements to fend for themselves.

While people like that should never own animals, unfortunately, they do.

And while those folks obviously wouldn’t lift a pinky finger to help an ailing animal, I hope they at least realize that no matter how unthinking and selfish they are, their dogs wouldn’t think twice about coming to their rescue if they were in trouble.

Dogs only know one thing. They love their humans. Beyond reason. No matter what.

It’s a shame that all humans haven’t learned that lesson yet.

Lisa Carnley is managing editor of the Lampasas Dispatch Record (and a dog lover).