Bella barked non-stop until her humans woke up and noticed the neighbouring house on fire; her barking enabled everyone to lend a helping hand in saving the family.
South Africa (10 October 2022) – Jeremy Rothon shared on the Happy Tails Group how his dog Bella played an instrumental role in saving the neighbours from a fire. The touching good deed earned her a big bag of biltong in thanks.
The Happy Tails Group, of the Happy Tails Magazine, is all about sharing animal stories relevant to South Africa. This includes helping find missing pets, tales of pets doing heroic things and heartwarming rescue stories too. Jeremy joined the group to share Bella’s heroic good deed.
Bella is a German Shepard and lives in Cape Town with owners Jeremy and Jenn. The family pets also include Max, who managed to grab the family’s attention by scratching on the door, and the cats Indigo and Charlie.
Bella’s barking also woke the neighbouring house, who were the first on the scene and were able to pull the family from the burning house. Jeremy was afforded the time to protect his own home from the blaze, by wetting the surrounding roof and walls. Bella made all this possible thanks to her barking.
“Two nights ago we woke up with Bella barking a gut-wrenching bark. It woke our neighbour two doors down. They looked out the window and saw our immediate neighbour’s house on fire. They were able to pull the brother (wheelchair-bound) and the sister (owner) out the house in time. House is gutted. I was wetting our roof and wooden fence to keep the flames away. No one was hurt but the neighbour said if it wasn’t for Bella they would more than likely have died in the fire. Bella was the hero. They bought her a pack of woolworth dry wors to say thank you.”
Bella truly saved the night. The neighbours were so moved by her actions, they stopped by to reward her with a big bag of Woolworths dry wors.
by 