In Meridian, Idaho, you don’t have to be a human to be a hero.
Just ask Jaxon the dog, who recently nabbed the town’s “Hometown Hero Award,” normally given out to creatures who walk on two legs, not four.
Jaxon won the award for saving his owners from a fire.
When sparks flew out of an outlet in their home, Mikaela Sebree and Todd Lavoie didn’t initially notice. Rather, it was Jaxon, the couple’s 11-year-old pug, who took action.
“Dogs have different kinds of barks, so he has his ‘somebody’s at the door’ bark and then he has his ‘holy crap something’s happening’ bark,” Sebree told CNN affiliate KBOI.
It was that particular bark which alerted Lavoie that something was wrong. He rushed to the source to find sparks turning into flames on an outlet downstairs and managed to knock down the flames with a fire extinguisher.
‘He saved our house’
Then the Meridian Fire Department arrived.
“Certainly his actions and the actions of this dog saved that house from potentially igniting and catching on fire and going up into walls and up into the attic and causing significant damage,” said Meridian fire chief Mark Niemeyer.
Jaxon did not just become Meridian’s first animal to ever receive the “Hometown Hero Award.” He also earned an official probationary firefighter badge, challenging firehouse dalmatians nationwide.
“Jaxon is definitely a super pug; he deserves the hometown hero,” Lavoie said. “He saved our house, he saved our lives and he saved our memories.”
