In 2010, Eric’s doctor told him to “buy a funeral plot” because he was going to need it within “the next five years.”
Eric had type 2 diabetes and was so obese that a flight he was one got held up because the airline attendants couldn’t find a long enough seatbelt extender.
Instead of giving up, Eric got a dog — a black-and-white rescue pup named Peety.
Peety was also middle aged and overweight. He’d been left alone in a backyard before winding up in the Humane Society Silicon Valley.
Together, Eric and Peety began to walk, then run. Together, they got to live.
“He’d gone from a situation like I was, where he didn’t have any friends, and he didn’t know anybody, and really became a proud dog,” says Eric, in the video.
“I’m still here, because a shelter dog saved my life.”