Gordon and Julia Haight want their 3-year-old Shiba Inu “Tomi” to take best in breed at the prestigious 140th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show next week, but they already have a very good reason to celebrate him.
The Associated Press reported that Julia Haight’s 4-year-old shiba inu, is one of the dog’s entering the show that has a very special backstory in which his owner credits him for saving the lives of her and her family.
Haight explained that as she and five other people in her Long Island home slept last October, a fire broke out and in order to wake her and her husband Tomi began jumping all over the bed continuously as smoke filled the air.
“He’s normally catlike, very graceful. But he was violently shaking. It wasn’t like him at all,” Haight said.
An electrical fire had started and the smoke was going throughout the house when Tomi began doing everything he could to alert the family.
“He was telling me something was wrong. Somehow, he knew,” Haight said.
Luckily Haight, her husband, her brother, his girlfriend and a family friend, all made it out of the Hicksville house alive, thanks to their very smart canine.
No matter how does Tomi in the competition, he will always be a true champion to his family.
The 2016 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show runs from Monday Feb. 15 through Tuesday Feb. 16.
Agencies/Canadajournal