ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A family said their dog rescued their 11-year-old grandson from a mudslide in the mountains. The child is in the Charlotte area now being treated at Atrium Health Levine Children’s Jeff Gordon Children’s Center.
Jamie Parker and his dog Tucker have always been inseparable.
“I probably would have died if it wasn’t for Tucker,” the little boy told WCNC Charlotte.
When Hurricane Helene barreled through in late September, the bond between the two of them was everything.
"It was terrifying for me,” Parker said.
The two were at home with his grandparents and sister Jemma, not far from Asheville, when a mudslide slammed into their house.
“All of a sudden I felt the house go like this and I saw walls coming at me and I thought, 'What?'” Parker's grandmother Donna Johns remembered.
Parker said he was on the couch with his sister at the time.
"Then the house mudslided and I face-planted into a wall, full body went flying,” Parker said.
His grandmother ended up on the roof, but Parker was thrown under the stairs in a pile of rubble about 12 feet deep.
"It was scary, I thought I was all alone," he said. "I thought they went down. I thought my family had died.”
Donna Johns said she also thought her husband and the kids were all dead.
“I had yelled for Jamie and Jemma and Michael and nobody answered me," she said. "I didn’t know if everybody was dead and I was screaming my head off."
Parker was lying under the debris, screaming for help but hearing no one.
“It felt like forever down there," Parker said. "I couldn't see sunlight, I could feel water dripping on me and I thought I was either gonna drown or run out of air.”
Parker's grandfather Michael Johns said he could see his granddaughter, but couldn’t find Parker.
“It was raining really hard, I remember seeing the little girl, but I couldn’t find the boy," Michael Johns said. "I couldn’t find him, didn’t know where he was.”
Parker was trying desperately to get someone’s attention.
“I was screaming at the top of my lungs and my grandma couldn't hear me,” Parker recalled.
His best hope was his best friend.
“Tucker was above me and he was barking," Parker said. "I heard him whining and barking.”
Michael Johns said Tucker wouldn’t move from his spot.
“He stayed on top of the pile and was barking away and I just thought he was going crazy," Michael Johns said. "I didn’t realize he had located the boy!”
Tucker stayed put until firefighters arrived and used a chainsaw to dig Parker out.
Parker thinks he knows why Tucker was the only one who knew where he was.
“Since he has big ears and a big nose, I think he could hear me and smell me," Parker said. "He was trying to tell them where I was."
The trauma caused a condition that can be deadly, so Parker was flown to Atrium Health Cabarrus where one nurse is fostering Tucker and the rest of the nursing team has spent their own money buying the basics for the family who lost everything, including their home.
Donna Johns is gutted after spending two decades paying off her home.
“I’ve been paying for it for over 25 years and I’m just $4,000 short of paying it off," she said. "My idea was that it would be paid off and we wouldn't have any mortgage payment -- and now it’s all gone."
But they’re grateful they have each other, and of course, Tucker.
Years ago, the siblings used their allowance money to pay for Tucker, saving him days before he was to be put down at a shelter.
“He was the last dog there,” Parker said. "When he saw us he ran right up to us.”
So they rescued Tucker.
"And he rescued me," Parker said.
As of now they don’t know where to go, so even though Parker is medically cleared and could go home, the hospital is letting the family stay at the hospital in a room together.
The sheriff's department in their home community is partnering with Habitat for Humanity to raise money to help get them a new home. Here's that fundraiser.
Contact Michelle Boudin at mboudin@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.