It’s the time of day when Harry usually takes Otto, his pet German shepherd, for the dog’s afternoon walk. Harry calls it a "spaziergang," the German word for "taking a walk." According to Paul Harvey, the dog is having no part of getting on the apartment’s elevator. He wants to trot down the seventh floor hallway.

Try as he might, Harry cannot convince his dog to get on the elevator. Instead, Harry follows Otto down the narrow hallway, to room 724 where Otto begins pawing and whimpering at the door.

This is the apartment of Charlie Hatfield, a friend of Harry’s and a frequent companion of Otto when the dog’s owner cannot walk him. For years, Charlie and Otto have been close buddies.

There’s no response to Otto’s pawing at Charlie’s apartment door. Harry knocks insistently. Still no answer. Either Charlie isn’t at home or something’s wrong, Harry concludes. He cell phones the apartment superintendent who soon arrives and unlocks the door.

There lying on the floor in front of the bedroom is the semi-conscious Charlie. He’s barely able to utter a word except for a nearly undetectable cry for help.

But Otto heard Charlie’s near silent plea, even if no human ear could. The dog sensed the urgency of his friend’s dilemma. Remember, it was only at Otto’s insistence that Harry came at all to Charlie’s apartment door.

As it turns out, Otto is a hero and a life-saver. Had help not arrived when it did, paramedics claim, Charlie would have surely died right there on the floor of his apartment.

Happily, Charlie is still alive although not quite as spry as he once was. He still walks with Otto, but only for a few minutes each day in the hallway up there on the seventh floor.