Last summer Care2 brought you the story of a pit bull who saved his owner not once, but twice. Gloria Benton’s husband John was leaving for work when Titan started acting strange and blocked the door, while barking and growling, which sent him back upstairs to check on his wife. John found Gloria had suffered an aneurism and had fallen and fractured her skull.
It happened a second time when Titan woke John at 4:30 am to let him know that Gloria had fallen in the bathroom.
Now comes another great story of a pit bull rescue.
A pit bull saved his owner from a fire in her Long Island, New York home on May 3, barking to alert her of the flames on the other side of the house that would soon engulf the building.
Jackie Bonasera was drying her hair in an upstairs bathroom of her home in East Norwich when she heard the dog barking. She ran downstairs and saw the flames rapidly spreading from the garage in the back of the house to the front. She ran out of the house, but then realized her dog Cain was still inside.
NBC news reports:
“I ran out of the house and my neighbors came running over, and then I thought about the dog – I’m like, ‘He saved my life, I have to save his,’” Bonasera recounted.
“So I just put my robe over my face and I ran back in and I grabbed the dog and then I stood out here and I watched my house burn,” she said.
Bonasera believes she would have been trapped upstairs if the dog, named Cain, hadn’t alerted her to the fire.
Bonasera’s daughter, Alexus Stallworth, said Cain is “the town hero.”
“He’s a pit bull, too,” said Stallworth. “They have such bad reps, but he’s such a good boy.”
I can relate. I wrote here about my house burning down last November. In my case, it was my cat Sgt. Pepper who insistently woke my husband and I, just in time for us to get out of our house before it became a raging inferno. What would we do without our hero pets?
More than 70 firefighters were needed to stop Bonasera’s fire. The cause of the blaze has not been determined yet, and the arson squad is investigating, but police don’t believe any criminal activity was involved.
Pit bulls are known for their muscular bodies and large jaws, which is why they are often recruited for dog fighting. As a result, the public has come to associate them with aggression and danger.
Obviously, we need some re-eduction on pit bulls. As Care2?s Alicia Graef explains, the SPCA Serving Erie County in New York is working to dispel common myths about pit bull terriers and show the world what they’re really born to do.
“Pit bull terriers are a severely misunderstood breed. The SPCA Serving Erie County’s goal is to educate and bring awareness to this issue in our community. The Bred To Love program’s main purpose is to put an end to the myths surrounding this amazing and loving breed. Pit bull terriers are loyal happy go lucky dogs that just adore people and will make a wonderful addition to a family looking for their new pal,” said Lindsay Guiher, a volunteer at the shelter.
What myths surround pit bulls? One is the belief that pit bulls have locking jaws and are more likely to bite than other breeds. This is completely false: pit bulls do not have any anatomical mechanism that would cause or allow their jaws to lock. No dog does. And pit bulls are no more likely to bite someone than any other breed.
Helping to destroy those myths are some wonderful reports about pit bulls. There was that pit bull who saved his owner twice, and Cain of course. And in February, a pit bull in Oklahoma named Baby had a nearly identical rescue. The animal barked to alert its family after an early morning fire spread in the house.
Then there was the pit bull who was named neighbor of the year after she saved her owner’s life.
Let’s give a big shout-out for pit bulls!
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/pit-bull-rescues-woman-from-burning-house.html#ixzz2SzgcrvyL
Hiranmay Karlekar