PHOENIX - Within a small wooden box, engraved and with a photo, Pockets lives on.
It’s where Martina Ochoa keeps the ashes of the dog, she says, who saved her life.
“It was a second chance," she said. "What if she wasn’t there? I would not be here today.”
Ochoa walks, talks and is still alive, thanks to her beloved Chihuahua Pockets, who on that potentially fateful night, did something incredible, as Martina slept in her bed.
PHOTOS: Pockets the miracle Chihuahua
“Out of the blue, she starts licking me and jumping all over me and just going crazy -- going crazy -- and I didn’t know what was going on," she said. "So, I slowly get up and I’m trying to get out of bed, but I’m like drunk, I’m like I don’t know where I’m at.”
With Pockets still yelping by her side, Martina tried to go down the hallway where her husband Robert spotted her.
“My husband, he’s yelling to me, and I can hear him yelling to me, but I don’t know what he’s saying," Ochoa said. "And I’m just like looking at him like I don’t even know who he is. And he’s just like, 'are you ok?' And I’m like I couldn’t speak, and he had noticed that my face had drooped on the right side.”
Robert knew something was terribly wrong, so he rushed her to the ER. Martina was having a stroke.
"If it wasn’t for Pockets waking me up, the doctor said I would’ve never woken up. I would’ve been gone in my sleep,” she said.
Martina spent over a week in the hospital. Her recovery was very slow.
“I had some speech impairment, some right side issues/motor skill problems, a little bit ... but the neurological was the hardest part,” she said.
But, through it all, Pockets was by her side every step of the way. The bond between a dog and her owner was stronger than ever.
“Even when I got back from work, she was with me all the time," Ochoa said. "She was in the cocina with me, she was at my legs, everywhere I was she was like a child right there, right there with me.”
Martina slowly went back to normal but three years later, Pockets, once again, would save another life -- one of Martina’s grandchildren's. Although this time, she would lose her own in one last heroic act.
“Pockets was outside with us and the baby was out there. And Pockets had got in the way, so the rattlesnake would not get to the baby, and would not get to the other dog," Ochoa said. "So, I’m getting in front of the baby, Pockets got in front and the rattlesnake jabbed her right in the head.”
The venom was too much, Pockets died instantly.
“It was the worst day of my life. She meant everything to me," Ochoa said. "She's still a fighter -- she was. I loved her 'til the end. ‘Til the end, I’ll never forget her.”
The loss of Pockets has been one the biggest blows in her life, Martina said. And although not physically here, she says her beloved Chihuahua is watching and still taking care of her above.
Martina’s four children and 10 grandchildren know she’s a walking miracle, and they owe it all to Pockets.
“She saved my life and I’m still here. And [because] I’m still here, I’m able to be with my grandkids, to be with my husband, and live life and see two of my daughters get married, and be with my grandkids and spend time with them," Ochoa said. "And, if not, I’d be missing out on so much.”