Glad to see that "Schnautzie" didn't out to be a canary in a coal mine! But I think the significance of the ceremony and reward was lost on him/her, lol.
It's uncanny how pets' instincts are. Many years ago, my then-6-month-old cats charged onto my bed and woke me up with their frantic meowing. Only then did I notice that it'd gotten very cold in the house on that January night. Checking around the cellar, I found that the pilot light in our furnace had blown out. Somebody from the gas company answered my call within an hour, and no safety hazard ever existed, but how'd those young felines with their fur coats
know something wasn't right?
One more anecdote for this thread: In more recent times, Weasie roused me one summer morning ahead of the radio by yelling at me and batting my nose. Groggily, I heard a smoke alarm sounding next door. There was no smoke to be smelled or seen. As if she could understand, I told her there was nothing to be concerned with and that she ought to let me go back to sleep. But she continued with her insistence that I not leave it alone. It was then that I heard the fire engines idling on the street out front and noticed the red lights flashing. Long story short - a neighbor had needed repairs done on a hot-water heater, and the klutz mechanic hadn't reopened the boiler connection once the job was finished. No matter that it was summertime, with the normal outlet blocked the furnace was overheating and could've exploded.
Had alarms not sounded to bring the firefighters - and had they not responded immediately and taken care of the issue - well...we're in a densely populated urban area, and the adjoining townhouses aren't even 50 yards away. Again I ask, how did that cat
know something wasn't right? Remove the effective alarm system and excellent fire department from that equation. Weasie might conceivably have saved us from being killed - or died trying.
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