Woman heard her dog gagging in the garden and feared the worst. What she saw on her Ring camera made her run to the vet
When a beloved pet suddenly shows signs of distress, panic can quickly set in. Cody, a playful one-year-old dog, had a near-death experience that turned into a miraculous rescue, all thanks to technology and a devoted dog mum. When the pet parent noticed him gagging in the yard, she knew she had to act fast before things got worse.
As reported by The Mirror, when Cody padded in from the front garden, choking and gagging, his owner Claire Roy knew something wasn’t right. The usually energetic pooch was clearly struggling. Cody had been enjoying one of his usual games, tossing ornamental stones from the flowerbed onto the driveway, when one of them became lodged in his throat. Claire heard what sounded like coughing, but soon realized Cody was gasping for air. With only a sliver of oxygen getting through, his life was in danger. Claire quickly checked her Ring doorbell camera to see what had happened.
The footage confirmed her fears; Cody had swallowed a three-centimeter triangular stone. Claire acted fast, calling Vets Now, a pet emergency service. She lifted Cody, gave back blows, and even tried the Heimlich maneuver. But nothing worked. As her husband rushed home to stay with their children, Claire and her friend, Peter, drove Cody to the 24-hour Vets Now hospital in Belfast. "It was only a 20-minute journey—but it felt like the fastest and at the same time slowest drive I’ve ever done… every minute felt like an eternity," Claire recalled. “I could see Cody fading with each minute, becoming quieter and sliding further down Peter's chest. It was beyond terrifying.” Upon arrival, they handed Cody to the vet team without a second to spare.
Principal vet Sasha Burns Fraser took over Cody’s care. She said the situation could have easily been misdiagnosed as kennel cough, if not for the video evidence. “Claire said she felt something solid in Cody's throat, but when we examined him, we could no longer feel this structure,” Sasha explained. “Without that footage, we might not have known about the stone until it was too late.” Under sedation, the team spotted the stone wedged in Cody's vocal cords, leaving barely enough space for air. Sasha used long forceps to carefully remove the stone. “I was actually amazed that he hadn't gone blue from lack of oxygen,” she said. She added, “This really must be one of the first ever cases of a dog's life being saved by a doorbell camera.”
Thankfully, Cody made a full recovery. Though tired from sedation, he was back home the same night, tail wagging. Claire said he bounced back quickly and was already looking to return to his stone-flipping antics. “He is the funniest, dopiest dog,” she laughed. She reflected on the ordeal, saying, “I honestly felt on that journey to Vets Now that Cody might be dying in slow-motion. It was awful, and we're all really grateful to Sasha and her team for getting him back to us safely and soundly.” She also had one final thought, “That doorbell camera really has been worth its weight in gold.”