I did a literature search through magazines and newspapers. And I contacted many organizations that give awards to animal heroes. In the process, I made so many contacts that people started seeking me out and sending me still more stories. They're still coming now even a year after my book was published. I've got thousands of them.
Animals can care so much about offering help that they forget their own danger.
An example is Ginger, a tiny, toothless, ancient, nearly blind Pomeranian, who weighed about five pounds. He kicked her against the wall. But her courage jarred his irrational yelling and made him forget that he was threatening to kill the woman. He ran out of the house. Ginger had risked her life to attack a man who weighed easily 40 times more than she.