SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Middle Tennessee family is safe and crediting their rescue dogs for saving them from what could have been a devastating situation.
The family told News 2 they were woken by their newest addition, Jigsaw, whose persistent barking alerted them to the ongoing danger.
At first, the Shelbyville family thought they lost everything. Inside the home and asleep were Brandy and Curtis Majerus and their 21-year-old daughter Aria, who was home from the University of Tennessee on break.
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“One of our dogs Jigsaw, he is our most recent rescue, he was the one being the most persistent, who got the other dogs barking,” said Brandy, “but this was just a persistent bark that I’ve never heard before. It was, you know, something is wrong like ‘I’m not going to stop barking until you wake up.'”
After Jigsaw woke Brandy and Curtis up, the pup made sure the entire family was alerted to the blaze.
“He actually ran out one door of our house, ran into the other door of the house like he was looking for our daughter,” said Brandy.
According to Brandy, once outside, her family saw the flames and immediately thought their house was a total loss.
“It was to a point by the time we got out of the house, even on the phone 911 said there’s not going to be anything you can save. I mean, the wind that night was so incredibly strong that it just caught that edge of the house and blew right through it.”
However, once firefighters arrived on scene, they were able to save some things that are very important to this military family.
“So, at one point, I was filling out paperwork with the fire department and one of the firemen came out and almost a ceremonial way,” recounted Brandy. “He actually came out carrying the tray that had all my husband’s and mine military coins on it. And he said, ‘this looks like it might be in of importance.'”
As for the rescue dogs, the Majerus family said they are grateful that they were able to rescue them in the middle of the night.
“We owe them T-Bones for sure,” said Brandy.
A GoFundMe has been created to provide temporary housing, food and necessities for the family. If you would like to donate, click here.
