In early January, firefighters were called to a blaze at a Lyon Park home. The home is divided into apartments. Only one woman was home when the fire broke out. She was alerted by her neighbors boxer mix, “Bling.”
She heard Bling barking and looked outside her apartment to investigate -- that’s when she saw the smoke.
“Bling never barks,” Bling’s owner, Nicole Cathell said.
With smoke coming up the stairs, the woman jumped out of her window. She then flagged down a passerby on the street, to call 9-1-1. Once fire crews arrived, she let them know Bling was inside.
“In a way, they kind of saved each other,” Cathell said, tearing up.
Cathell, vividly recalls receiving the call at work -- her apartment was on fire, and firefighters were looking for her dog.
“I was like ‘what do you mean? What does that mean? Why would they need to look for him?’ You know, if he was like awake and conscious, he would have run out. Or, he would have run to the people that came in the house. So that just terrified me,” she said.