Animal Insting

This is the true story about a dog who saved her whole family's life on Christmas Eve.  And here's how it happened:  Roxy, who is the hero of the story, is a 15-year-old boxer who lives in Cape Breton with her mom and dad and three other dogs.  And if you are like me, you are saying to yourself, "Where is Cape Breton?"  So I asked my Mom this question, and she said she wasn't sure, but she thought it might be somewhere in Canada.


Well, that wasn't a very good answer, so I did some research, and I learned that Cape Breton is an island, and it is part of the province of Nova Scotia, which is kind of at the eastern end of Canada, except not as far east as Newfoundland.  So at least Mom had the country right.

But getting back to Roxy's story -- on Christmas Eve, Roxy was just sort of hanging out in her mom's office, like she often did, mostly sleeping, which she also often did because that's what old dogs do.  And Roxy's mom was in the office, and her dad was in the kitchen.  Then all of a sudden, Roxy got up and went in the living room.  And she started making really strange noises which her mom said were "sounds that I have never heard come out of her in all of her 15 years."  Then Roxy ran back into her mom's office and grunted at her.  And then she went back in the living room and then back to the office.

So finally, Roxy's mom got the idea that Roxy was trying to tell her something, and she went in the living room, and she saw that one whole corner of the room was totally on fire!  She started yelling at her husband, and they grabbed the dogs' leashes and they all made it out the back door just in time, before a ball of fire came rolling down the hallway.

Everything in the house got burned up except for two angel ornaments, but the dogs and the humans were safe, and it was all because Roxy was so brave and smart.  The other three dogs are now staying at a kennel, but Roxy gets to stay with her mom and dad at a hotel.

The fire probably started because of an electrical problem with the Christmas lights, which is how a lot of fires get started at this time of year.  So if you have Christmas lights inside your house, you should be very careful, and also you should have a very smart dog like Roxy around to let you know if your house happens to catch on fire.