pit bull Archives - Page 4 of 17

Hero Pit Bull Alerts Authorities to Gas Leak

Home alone Wednesday afternoon, a senior Pit Bull named Sadie sensed that something was very wrong in her Westchester County, N.Y. house. She dug out a wooden block keeping a sliding door shut and ran outside, knocking down a fence as she bolted out of the yard.

Someone a few blocks away called the police when they heard Sadie’s incessant barking. When officers arrived, Sadie ran off and took them “through several streets, and then lead them back to the dog’s residence into the backyard,” Lt. Lawrence Rotta with the Tuckahoe Police Department told WABC.

The officers noticed the broken fence as well as claw marks and blood on the sliding glass door. They also noticed the strong odor of gas coming from the basement. The officers called the Eastchester Fire Department and Con Edison, which arrived at the house and confirmed a gas leak.

Sadie’s owner, Serena Costello, was at work and her 4-year-old daughter was with a sitter when a friend called her and told her about all the activity at her house.

Sadie “is our hero,” Costello told WABC. She said that in 11 years, her dog had never run away before. “It’s just so out of character for her to do. She saved our lives.”

Rotta agreed. “The dog saved the house from a potential gas explosion and gas leak,” he told WABC. “Natural gas inside the house can accumulate to the point where, God forbid, someone would come home and turn on a light switch, and there could be a potential explosion,” he told News12.

The police had to give Costello a summons for having an unleashed dog. But after ConEd determined there was a gas leak, one of the officers “took the summons and ripped it up,” Costello told WABC. The leak has been repaired.

Good girl, Sadie, and many thanks to WABC, News12 and CBS New York for covering this positive Pit Bull story.

Photo via @ABC7NY/Twitter

Homeless Pit Bull Helps Rescue Kittens Trapped in Storm Drain

Harvey, a Pit Bull with an irresistible smile, has spent too long a time in long-term sanctuary care at Faithful Friends Animal Society, a no-kill shelter in Delaware. Hopefully, thanks to his recent heroic efforts, Harvey will soon find himself in a forever home.

As he was being taken for a walk, Harvey ran up to a storm drain and started barking. Checking to see what Harvey was barking about, his handler discovered a kitten trapped inside the drain.

That kitten was rescued thanks to Harvey, and within two weeks the Faithful Friends team was able to save two other kittens that were stuck in the same drain. The three kittens — Beta, Brie, and Brewster — are now in foster homes and will be ready for adoption soon.

In the meantime, the hero dog whose barking saved the kittens’ lives is also more than ready for adoption. Harvey enjoys outdoor activities like running and hiking, as well as indoor activities like cuddling and watching TV, so it seems like it won’t be too difficult for him to find the perfect home. While he does have some dog pals at the shelter, Faithful Friends says Harvey would do best as the only pet.

According to Laura Elizabeth in a comment on the Faithful Friends Animal Society’s Facebook page, Harvey had been adopted but was returned to the shelter in 2014 when his owners broke up or divorced and couldn’t keep him. “He takes some time to get used to new people, but he is such a love bug and oh so goofy!” she wrote.

The Faithful Friends Sanctuary Care Program “provides a place for animals who are harder to adopt due to terminal illness, medical conditions or behavior challenges,” according to a post on its Facebook page.

If you’re interested in adopting Harvey the hero dog (yay, you!), email taylor@faithfulfriends.us. And please visit the Faithful Friends Animal Society website to make a donation to help them rescue more awesome dogs.

Photo: Faithful Friends Animal Society/Facebook

Young Hero Pit Bull Saves Baby from House Fire

On June 3, one of the rare nights that Nana Chaichanhda let Sasha, her 8-month-old Pit Bull, sleep outside their Stockton, Calif., home, she was awakened by Sasha frantically scratching at the back door to get inside.

“I heard a loud bang and I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ And I heard Sasha crying, and she kept jumping at the door,” Chaichanhda told KCRA. “As soon as I got to the door, she runs in and starts barking.”

As Chaichanhda looked outside to see what could be spooking Sasha, she saw that her neighbor’s house was on fire — and the flames were spreading to her own house in the fourplex where she lives. Chaichanhda’s 7-month-old daughter, Masailah, was taking a nap in a back bedroom at the time.

Sasha ran straight to Masailah’s room, with Chaichanhda right behind her.

“She had already had my baby by the diaper and was dragging her off the bed,” Chaichanhda told FOX40. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what are you doing?'”

Chaichanhda, Masailah and Sasha all made it safely out of the house, thanks to the hero Pit Bull.

“I owe her everything,” Chaichanhda told FOX40. “If it wasn’t for her, I would have still been in bed and things could have taken a worse turn.”

The family is temporarily staying with a family member. A GoFundMe campaign has been started to help them recover.

Chaichanhda said she hopes Sasha’s heroic actions will help change some people’s negative views of Pit Bulls. Many thanks to KCRA, FOX40 and other news outlets for sharing this Pit Bull positive story!

Photo via gofundme.com

15 Fascinating Facts About Sgt. Stubby, the Most Decorated US Military Dog

Sgt. Stubby — who was believed to be a Pit Bull mix — was the most decorated war dog in U.S. history. Here are some interesting things to know about this four-legged hero.

1. Stubby was a stray dog, wandering around a Yale University field, when he was rescued in 1917 by John Robert Conroy, a soldier being trained for World War I combat.

2. Conroy didn’t want to leave Stubby behind when his unit was shipped off to France. He concealed his dog inside an overcoat and smuggled him onto his ship.

3. Once he was discovered, Stubby became the “unofficial official mascot” of the 102nd Infantry, 26th (Yankee) Division in France.

4. He was hit in the leg by a grenade in early 1918, but that didn’t stop him. He kept other injured soldiers company as he recovered. (Perhaps he was the world’s first therapy dog!)

5. Not long after his leg healed and he returned to the trenches, he was sprayed with mustard gas. Did this stop our resilient hero? No way. In fact, he remembered the scent and barked to warn the soldiers of subsequent gas attacks, saving many lives.

6. Not only did his sense of smell save lives, but so did his sense of hearing. He was aware of the whine of artillery shells before the soldiers could hear it, so he would bark to let them know they should take cover.

7. Because he was a lot shorter than the other soldiers, he could easily scoot under barbed wire in so-called “no man’s lands” to bring supplies to wounded soldiers.

8. When a spy began speaking German to Stubby, the dog chomped onto the seat of his pants and held on until his fellow soldiers arrived.

9. He spent a total of 18 months in France, participating in 17 battles on the Western Front.

10. Legend has it that he even saved a little girl from getting hit by a car in Paris by pushing her out of harm’s way.

11. He was the first – and only – military dog to be promoted to sergeant.

12. At the end of World War I, Conroy smuggled him back to the United States, where the dog got a well-deserved hero’s welcome. He met presidents, led parades, and became an honorary lifetime member of the American Legion, Red Cross and YMCA.

13. In 1926, around the age of 10, he died peacefully in Conroy’s arms.

14. He is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in the exhibit, “The Price of Freedom: Americans at War.”

15. Sadly, this hero dog wouldn’t be allowed to live in housing on Army bases in the United States today. Pit Bulls, Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Doberman Pinschers and some other dogs are banned from military housing because these breeds are allegedly “dangerous.” But the only thing “dangerous” is the military’s unfair stereotyping of these dogs.

This story, one of i Still Love Dogs’ most popular, was originally posted on Memorial Day 2015. The computer-animated feature film, “Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero,” was released in 2018 and as of November 2019 is available on HBO.

Photos: Public domain; amhistory.si.edu

Pit Bull Puppy Alerts His Family to Gas Leak

Peanut may only be six months old, but already this Pit Bull puppy from North Royalton, Ohio, is being hailed as a life-saving hero for detecting a gas leak.

He was barking all night long on March 22 at what his dog dad, Brian Maloney, assumed was the family’s cat. As Peanut’s barks grew more persistent, Maloney decided he’d better go downstairs and check it out.

“I got up and as soon as I came out of the bedroom, I got hit with a real strong odor of natural gas,” he told Fox 8 News.

He found the source of the gas leak: his hissing stove. One of the burners had been turned on, but not enough to ignite it.

“So, I went and turned the knobs off and I had to get all the animals out of the house and open up all the windows,” Maloney told Fox 8 News. “Thank God I didn’t turn a light switch on, because who knows what would have happened. I could have blown the house up, I’m sure.”

Along with Peanut and the cat, the Maloney family owns two other dogs, another cat, chickens, ducks, horses and swans. They believe one of the cats may have jumped on the stove and accidentally turned the burner knob. Maloney said they’ll be taking the knobs off from now on.

And of all those pets, he added, Peanut is now the family favorite. “Thank God for Peanut,” Maloney said.

Photo: Fox 8 News Cleveland/YouTube