DENVER -- When police spotted a Colorado drug dealer, the man ran away and tossed 17 bags of heroin over a fence.

That fence surrounded the Bark and Play doggie daycare and the heroin bags landed near a golden retriever named Charlie.

Since some dogs will eat pretty much anything put in front of them, Charlie ate the heroin.

Workers at the doggie daycare quickly realized what had happened and called Charlie's mom.

"She's high on heroin, we're treating her but you need to come as soon as you can," Charlie's owner Laura recalled a daycare worker saying over the phone.

"I'm upset, I'm grateful that she's alive," Laura told KMGH. "The employee saved her life."

Bark and Play owner Garrett Bishop said 17 baggies were found in the doggie daycare playroom.

"This whole heroin problem around here is ridiculous," Bishop said. "We find needles we find everything around here, and it's getting to the point where I can't let my employees go outside."

As Charlie recovers from the drugs, her owner can shift focus from the dog's health to the drug problem that plagues her community.

"I could have lost my dog yesterday because some stupid idiot decided to sell drugs, run from the police and throw them," she said. "If you want to do drugs, you can drugs. You can ruin your life - if you want to sell drugs to people, sell drugs to people that want to do drugs, you're ruining their life and they chose it, my dog didn't choose it."