Dogs-heroes: dog Ben rescued children from a burning house

Every owner sees something heroic in their dog, but Colleen, the owner of Ben the dog, can rightfully consider her pet a hero. Ben is a pet of the Rauschenberg family, and he set a great example for all dogs: he helped people when they really needed it.

“I am so grateful to fate for giving me the opportunity to save Ben, who, in turn, saved the life of my children and the life of my friend’s daughter, that is, in fact, saved me,” Colleen shared.

Colleen Rauschenberg became Ben’s mistress not so long ago. She was about to get a dog, and her friend Helin called and told her about an ad in the local newspaper – a beautiful dog is looking for an owner. But when Colleen first saw a photo of her future hero dog, she did not like the dog at all and even seemed ugly.

Right of residence confirmed

“Ben is a cross between a Bernese Mountain Dog and a Border Collie,” says Collin. That photo from the newspaper was very unfortunate, you can’t take a worse picture of him. When I saw him live, he looked completely different!”

On the very first evening in the new house, the dog was nicknamed “Big Ben” (literally “Big Ben”, a reference to a popular London landmark) and “Gentle Ben” (a reference to the series “Master of the Mountain”). The next morning, Colleen discovered that her children had dressed the giant dog in a Steelers football jersey. Ben accepted the rules of the new “pack” with good nature and, to the delight of the whole family, proudly walked in this football uniform.

The Rauschenbergs were very fond of Ben. Gentle, loyal and cheerful, he perfectly joined the family. Then Colleen and her children moved out of the house into a rented apartment, where, unfortunately, it was not allowed to keep animals. However, Ben could visit his family. During one of these visits, the dog simply charmed the owner of the apartment with exemplary behavior and excellent dog manners, and he finally decided that Ben could live with his family.

This decision may have saved the lives of four children.

That same night

Colleen is divorced and always busy, so she rarely had time for herself and rest. When the children were with her, and not with her father, the woman tried to spend all the time with them. But one of those evenings, Alex, the daughter of her friend Helin, called her and asked if she needed to babysit. Alex was looking for a part-time job as a nanny because she wanted to save money to renovate her room. Colleen thought about it and agreed.

That evening, she threw a couple of things in the clothes dryer and left, leaving the kids with Alex. The woman was resting with her friend, and everything was fine. Several times during the evening she spoke on the phone with Alex and the children. They were all right, so Colleen decided she could come home later. During the last phone call, Alex said that all the children were sleeping and she was going to bed too, because it was getting late.

What Colleen heard on the next call still makes her shudder.

Her daughter called, she shouted into the phone: “Mom, mom! Come home soon! We’re on fire!

Colleen doesn’t even remember how she got home: “I raced to the children, I remember only the squeal of tires.”

The fire engulfed the entire apartment. The fire may have been started by the dryer that Colleen had turned on a few hours earlier. While the children were sleeping, the always vigilant Big Ben smelled smoke. He went to Alex and woke her up by jumping beside her bed. It was not only Ben’s persistence that saved the children, but also the fact that Alex’s mother told her about dogs: if a dog wakes you up, you should not ignore him, then something happened. Alex got up and went to the front door to let Ben out; she thought he needed to go to the bathroom. But in the living room she saw a fire. Alex was able to get Ben and the kids out of the apartment and then called the fire department.

“If Ben hadn’t woken her up, none of them would be with us now,” Colleen said.

What happened next

The large living room and laundry room suffered the most damage. The blinds in the living room literally melted. It seemed that there was not a single corner in the apartment, wherever smoke and fire had reached.

“I’m divorced, so I don’t have much money,” Collin admits. “But I hope that I will save up the necessary amount and get myself a tattoo with Ben. After all, if not for him, I could lose everyone.

And the hero dog doesn’t seem to think he’s done anything special. For Ben, everything is still the same: a bowl of dry food in the morning, walks several times a day, noisy romping in the yard, and changing into a Steelers jersey. However, for Colleen, the dog began to mean much more. This is a prime example of the special affection you feel for dogs helping people simply because it’s the right thing to do.

Hero dogs and fires

According to PBS (Public Broadcasting Service – public broadcasting service), a dog’s sense of smell is 10 to 000 times more acute than a human’s. Dogs can smell anything from flammable substances used by arsonists to cancerous cells in humans. It is likely that Ben’s keen senses helped him sense the danger.

But why did he wake up Alex and not the kids? After all, she is an outsider, not a member of the family? Because Alex knew what to do in a fire. Dogs instinctively feel the leader of the pack. Of course, Ben realized that Alex was the leader that night because Colleen wasn’t home.

Other dogs, like Ben, have saved their families from fires, earthquakes, and other natural and man-made disasters. The Huffington Post online publication wrote about the blind, deaf, three-legged dog True from Oklahoma, who saved his family from a house fire in the same way that Ben saved the Rauschenberg family. It seems that nothing will prevent a dog from acting heroically if a person is in trouble. Stories about dogs helping people are admirable, and such stories are far from uncommon.

Pets can make a huge difference in our lives, which is why heroes like Gentle Ben deserve the very best nutrition. Quality dog ​​food helps dogs stay healthy and happy in any situation. A hero dog needs good nutrition just like a dog needs its family. Hill’s Science Plan is the perfect choice for your pet.