Supreme Master Ching Hai is a world-renowned spiritual leader, humanitarian, and artist who is also a devoted animal lover with 10 adopted dogs of her own. Having compassion for all beings, she promotes vegetarianism, meaning an animal-free diet, to millions of people.

Supreme Master Ching Hai expresses her feelings about the beautiful qualities of animals as follows:

I read in the newspapers, I heard on the radio, I saw on TV, so many noble animals that they rescue people. They rescue their own kin at the expense of their own life even. I think many of them, the animals, are so noble, so noble and so loving to their own kind as well as to others. And sometimes you see a cat or dog swimming in the very dangerous river to rescue his friends.

Be it a human friend or a dog friend, or a cat's friend, they do that, at the risk of their own life. The animals, they see danger, they still risk out of love. And that is the reason why we must be vegetarian, because they are truly noble, they truly possess the human quality and a soul within them just like ourselves.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has thus lovingly created a series of awards, including the Shining World Hero Award, Shining World Intelligence Award, and Shining World Loving Care Award to honor role models of all shapes and sizes who have displayed remarkable courage, intelligence and care through their loving acts of altruism.

Our first Shining World Hero is a one-year-old Shih Tzu named Tuchi, who alerted her caregivers to a dangerous fire that was caused by a faulty cruise control device in their sport utility vehicle.

It was around 4 to 5 o’clock in the morning, Easter Sunday. I was asleep. And my dog was barking, and I’m hearing this barking in the morning and I’m just thinking that maybe she’s just barking because there’s paint peeling outside she has seen. But she’s barking for 10 to 15 minutes, so I’m guessing there’s something wrong. So my dad wakes up. And the dog is constantly barking and waking the whole family up.

And my dad sees the fire and he’s like, “Fire! Fire”! So I wake up. My dog’s still barking, telling us that there’s obviously a fire outside, helping us to wake up. If we were still asleep, we would not be here right now. And through the help of my dog right here, Tuchi, she helped us. She helped us out. (Very touching).

And if she wasn’t here, if she wasn’t with us, we wouldn’t be right now, so thank you very much, Tuchi, for all your courageous help towards the past and future of our lives. And thank you for being there for us.

She’s really a hero for us, and I’m glad that she’s part of our family.

In recognition of her life-saving actions, Supreme Master Ching Hai has honored Tuchi with the Shining World Hero Award. The following is an excerpt from Supreme Master Ching Hai’s warmhearted letter to the noble Tuchi:

Dear Tuchi, It is with much pleasure and gratitude that we present to you the “Shining World Hero Award.” This Award is presented in recognition of your extraordinary acute senses, outstanding loyalty and exceptional resilience demonstrated to protect your human family members, and for proving to our world that animals are indeed God’s precious gift to humankind. We are so proud of you, Tuchi; your vigilance and attentiveness averted a tragedy and helped save precious lives!

May you and your family share many more years of cherished moments together! For your protective instinct and fast reaction to an emergency and for being human’s best friend, we hereby applaud and celebrate the super heroic deeds of Tuchi – the one year old Shih Tzu with a thunderous bark! With Great Honor, Love and Blessings, Supreme Master Ching Hai

Thank you.

Tuchi also received a beautiful crystal Award plaque.

Presented to Tuchi for her courageous act.

Thank you.

Wow! It’s nice, very nice, actually.

Oh, Tuchi, aren’t you glad?

In addition, Tuchi and her caregiver were given a selection of Supreme Master Ching Hai’s CDs and DVDs as well as her #1 international bestselling books, The Birds in My Life,” and “The Noble Wilds,” a gift check of US$1,000 for Tuchi’s care, veggie sweets, a beautiful bed and a doggie outfit.

I love it. Oh, wow!

Wow!

It’s beautiful!

It is nice; look at that, Tuchi.

Hey, Tuchi guy.

Tuchi guy, your new outfit, man.

Beautiful!

Thank you very much for all your help and for all your awards for our dog and everything. I’m really happy that she has gotten a lot of things from Master Ching Hai. Thank you very much, as well. And my dog as well thanks you, and my mother, too. (Why are you crying, baby? It’s alright.) Thank you very much to everyone, and everyone that’s been here for us.

After this brief message we’ll feature the presentation of the Shining World Hero Award to Auggie. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to the Shining World Award series on Supreme Master Television. Our next Shining World Hero is Auggie, a Golden Retriever mix who lives with his caregiver, Mr. Donald Fisher, in New Whiteland, Indiana, USA.

Auggie was adopted from a local shelter and has been living with the Fisher family for over a year and a half. Every day, Auggie goes out to collect the newspaper with his human companion. One wintry morning, Mr. Fisher experienced a life-threatening situation and was lucky to have Auggie by his side.

I’m handicapped, but every morning I go out our patio door and I come down here to the mailbox and get the paper and take it back in my wheelchair just because I like to do it. But this January was our first snow, and our first cold, cold day, but I thought I could make it. It snowed, but I didn’t think it was very deep, I thought it was just a light snow, but I came down the driveway over there, down to the mail box and got the papers, and Auggie came with me, and when I turned around to go back up, the chair wouldn’t move, it was stuck, it raised up on the snow, and it just wouldn’t go.

And there I was sitting in the 10-degree air; all I had was a light shirt on and these shorts because I thought I’d be right back in (the house). I didn’t dress for it (the weather). There I was stuck, and it was around six in the morning, and all the houses were dark, there was no traffic, and here I was stuck, no way to walk, no way to yell; my cell phone, I left it in the house on the charger, and I didn’t know what to do; I thought this was the end of my life.

I had no idea Auggie could help me at all. But I, I looked, and I thought, and I was freezing, 10 more minutes I would have died. But I said, “Well, this is the only hope I’ve got,” and I looked down to Auggie, and he looked up at me, and those big eyes batted like that; he knew something was horribly wrong, and I said, “Well, here’s my chance.” So I said, “Auggie, go get Mark.”

He shot up the driveway as fast as he could, and I left the back door open, and he came in the house, and did something that I could not believe. I’ll let Mark tell you what he did.

What he did, he doesn’t do it very often, or had never done it until that day, so he came in and he barked at me, howled at me and then ran back outside, and then when I didn’t get up, he came back in and did it again. And he just kept doing it until I got up and went outside to see what happened. And then, so I did, I came out here and my dad was stuck in the snow, and I couldn’t move him by myself, so I went in to get my older brother, our horse here, and that’s how we got him back in.

But if it wouldn’t have been for Auggie, (Right) I would have slept and not known that he had went out. I’m usually awake when he goes and gets the paper, but that morning I wasn’t. And that’s how he became our hero.

So what did you think when Mark told you how he got him out?

First of all, I was glad to be alive! But second, I didn’t know what to think, because he’d never done anything like that in his life, and when the boys came down to get me, he came prancing down, jumping up and down like he knew he really did something good. Now, how he knew it, I don’t know, but he did, he jumped around, jumped around, played in the snow.

For his extraordinary act of bravery and loyalty, Supreme Master Ching Hai recently honored Auggie with the Shining World Hero Award. The happy canine also received a handsome Award plaque accompanied by Supreme Master Ching Hai’s cordial letter of appreciation, from which the following is an excerpt:

This award is presented in recognition of your extraordinary attentiveness, quick wit and response to emergency. And for being mankind’s best friend, gallantly demonstrating that animals are indeed God’s precious gift to humankind. Auggie, your intuition and agility saved Donald’s life. And we thank you for showing our world this unique way of expressing gratitude to Donald who rescued you from a shelter’s home a year and a half ago.

May you and your human companions share many years of endearing moments together. For your outstanding loyalty, for your unconditional love and for being courageous and an intelligent Golden Retriever, we applaud and celebrate the hero deeds of Auggie, canine with super telepathic abilities. With Best Wishes and Love, Supreme Master Ching Hai.

And with that award comes a check to buy delicious and good snacks for Auggie in the amount of US$200.

Thank you.

Auggie and the Fisher family were also given a number of gifts including Supreme Master Ching Hai’s #1 international best sellers, “The Birds in My Life,” “The Dogs in My Life,” and “The Noble Wilds.” Auggie loved the vegan bones that were provided as well.

Supreme Master, all of our gratitude in the world to you. We can’t believe this happened, but since it did, and you found out, I thank you so much. And that’s from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.

We sincerely thank Auggie and Tuchi for being splendid examples of unconditional love. May the world continue to be blessed by the presence of these wondrous animals. Loving viewers, it was our pleasure having you with us on this edition of the Shining World Award series. Up next is Enlightening Entertainment after Noteworthy News here on Supreme Master Television. May the courageous spirit of love bring us all to a higher state of being.