Two dogs are making headlines for saving their owners after fires broke out in their homes.
Tank, a 7-month-old Boxer–Mastiff mix, awoke early November 18 with the feeling that something was wrong.
It turns out that Tank was right — his family’s North Carolina home had caught fire, and the flames were spreading quickly. His owners, Russell and Krystal Ewing, were still asleep down the hall.
As smoke started to fill the house, Tank burst into the Ewing’s bedroom.
“He nudged Krystal and then he woke me up with a little of his whining,” Russell explained.
At first, the Ewings thought that Tank was only waking them up because he wanted to go outside, but the couple soon understood the reason for Tank’s anxiety.
“He led me down the hallway and stopped instead of going to the back door, which is what he would usually go to go outside,” said Russell, “and there was smoke coming from the laundry room.”
Thanks to Tank’s quick actions, the family was able to make it out of the house and to safety as the fire department arrived. The Ewings feel lucky that the flames were mostly contained to their laundry room, sparing the remainder of their home, but they feel even luckier to have a dog like Tank in their lives.
The Ewings adopted Tank from an animal rescue group called 2nd Chance. He had been on the “to be euthanized” list at the local animal shelter.
“He definitely did the return, without a doubt, and rescued us,” Russell told WCNC.
Meanwhile, that same morning, another family woke up to similar circumstances.
Katie Crosley and her infant son, Jace, were fast asleep in their Oklahoma cabin Sunday when suddenly, a fire broke out. An electrical short on the family’s front porch had started a fire that was rapidly consuming the rest of the home.
True, Crosley’s rescued Dachshund, was the first to notice the blaze and started howling, desperately trying to warn his sleeping owner. Crosley was startled awake by True, then noticed the smoke filling their small cabin. She quickly scooped up Jace, then True, and made her way out of the back door just in time.
Crosley considers True’s heroic actions a miracle. True, a dog that Crosley had adopted because no one else was willing to take a chance on him, is deaf, blind, and is missing a leg.
Though her home and possessions were destroyed, Crosley is grateful that she, Jace, and True made it out alive—all thanks to her differently-abled Doxie.
“We’re thankful for him,” Crosley told KFOR of True. “This could have been a bad deal.”
