Watch Quick-Thinking Man Leap Into Action To Save Dog from Leash Caught in Elevator
A Houston man has been credited with saving the life of a Pomeranian dog whose leash had been caught in an elevator door.
Johnny Mathis, 27, was returning to his home after work Monday when he witnessed a woman walking her dog on a leash. The woman stepped into the elevator as the dog trotted after her.
As the elevator doors began to close, the dog seemed to hesitate, unsure of whether to follow or stay put.
“When she got on, I was looking at the dog, because it was a cute dog,” Mathis told CNN. “I noticed the leash was kinda long but I didn’t think it wasn’t going to make it on the elevator or anything.”
But the dog did not make it onto the elevator, and Mathis, who had started to walk away, quickly realized what was going on.
Video footage from the apartment complex showed the elevator doors close with the Pomeranian still outside. Mathis realized the dog was in trouble and darted toward the confused pup.
Y’all I’m shaking!!! I just saved a dog on a leash that didn’t make it onto the elevator with the owner before the door closed! I just happened to turn around as the door closed and it started to lift off the ground I got the leash off in time??
— Johnny Mathis (@Johnnayyeee) December 10, 2019
Video footage showed the moment Mathis grabbed the dog and worked frantically to remove the leash.
“Instinct just kicked in, I just grabbed that leash,” Matthis told CNN. “There was so much fur, that’s why it took me a bit to get that lever off of the collar and when I did, I let go, you could see that leash just shoot off to the top of the elevator.”
!!!! pic.twitter.com/OL5NL0ZBzb
— Johnny Mathis (@Johnnayyeee) December 10, 2019
Mathis said he could hear the owner from inside the elevator, and that she was “terrified.”
“It was super scary and all I was focused on was getting that leash off the dog,” he told Fox Television Studios.
When the owner returned to the floor and reunited with her dog, Mathis could tell she was overcome with emotion.
“She thought the worse, that the dog had died,” he told CNN.
Mathis was quick to forgive the owner for the mishap, telling Fox, “there was nothing she could have done.”
“She is new to the building so I think she wasn’t expecting it to shut so fast,” he said. “I felt terrible for her. It was an honest mistake.”
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