{"id":857327,"date":"2026-08-16T13:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T13:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/857327\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T13:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T13:24:08","slug":"woman-dies-shielding-blind-dog-in-colombia-earthquake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/857327\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman dies shielding blind dog in Colombia earthquake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">PASTO, Colombia \u2013 Holding little Salomon in his arms, Michael Ruiz recounted how he found the pet next to his sister\u2019s body among the rubble after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/world\/major-quake-rocks-colombia-and-other-countries-causing-damage-and-injuries?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\">Colombia\u2019s devastating earthquake<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The 7.4-magnitude earthquake, which struck the western parts of Colombia on Aug 10, has killed at least 294 people and injured nearly 4,000 others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Ruiz said his sister, Lenny, who worked as a lawyer, sacrificed herself to save the dog by shielding it with her body when their building collapsed in Cali, one of the cities hit hardest by the quake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The story of Lenny and Salomon has gone viral on social media, as many remained desperate to locate their pets after the disaster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cMy sister gave her life for him because she was holding him against her chest, and the whole structure fell on top of her,\u201d Ruiz said through tears in the city of Pasto.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cI see it as a love story because obviously she loved that little animal\u2026 When you love something, you protect it,\u201d Ruiz said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Salomon is 12 years old and suffers from epileptic seizures that have left him blind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Ruiz and rescuers managed to find him after digging through the debris.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Six days after the quake, many pet owners held onto hope that their missing animals would be found alive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Jessica Florez, Lenny\u2019s sister-in-law, said the dog is sad over his owner\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">A video of Salomon on top of Lenny\u2019s coffin has been viewed tens of thousands of times on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cI brought him close to her coffin so he could say goodbye,\u201d Florez said. AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PASTO, Colombia \u2013 Holding little Salomon in his arms, Michael Ruiz recounted how he found the pet next&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-857327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}