A dog may have saved her owners' lives by alerting them to a gas leak.
Ronene Ando from New York woke up at 1am to the sound of Ruby, her three-year-old pit bull, barking loudly.
The barking went on for an hour-and-a-half with no signs of stopping. Ms Ando brought her upstairs in the hopes she would calm down, but the dog ran back down the stairs and continued to bark.
Ruby is a therapy dog and trained to be quiet, so Ms Ando knew something must be wrong.
"Typically she only barks for one reason, and that's if someone is at the door," she told WIVB-TV.
Eventually Ms Ando followed Ruby downstairs and into the basement, where she and her partner had recently installed a propane heater.
As soon as she opened the door she smelled gas and realised the new heater was leaking.
Ms Ando says had she not been alerted to the leak, she "can't say" what might have happened - but the couple could have died in their sleep from carbon monoxide poisoning.
She told WIVB-TV she believes Ruby's persistent barking was her way of warning her about the smell.
"Dogs are typically intuitive. I believe that breed is even more so with all the research I've done, and I think that was it, hands down."
She says public misconceptions have led to pit bulls getting a "bad rap", and wants people to know that they can be loving dogs.
"They are very protective, and they are really amazing dogs if they are trained well and kept active."
Newshub.
