Image Credit: Josh Kwok via Unsplash
The age of humans may be coming to an end.
I don’t say this to alarm anyone. I think we just all need to acknowledge that as a species, we’re kind of shit. We’ve killed off almost all the rhinoceri, we’re poisoning the water supply, we belch greenhouse gases all day every day, and we’ve nominated a talking Cheeto with hair to be the President of the United States. I think we’re done.
Fortunately for the planet, dogs appear to be stepping up to be the heroes we need. Over the summer, I told you about Duke, who was just elected to his third term as mayor of his town. And I think we’ve all seen services dogs providing material and emotional support to their owners — support that other humans are not so good at handing over with the same kind of unconditional love.
In the latest example of dogs being better than people, we have Jaxon, an 11 year old pug from Meridian, Idaho. Jaxson was just named a Hometown Hero for his role in saving his humans and their house from a fire.
Mikaela Sebree and Todd Lavoie tell CNN that Jaxson let them know that an electrical outlet was sparking. "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 says.
That “Holy Crap” bark was what got Jaxon’s owners concerned enough to investigate, and they found that a fire had been started by the malfunctioning outlet. They were able to stop the fire with a home fire extinguisher and then called the fire department.
The Meridian fire chief credits Jaxon with saving the house and possibly saving some lives as well.
In addition to being named the first non-human Meridian Hometown Hero, Jaxon has been awarded a probationary firefighter badge.
I think Jaxon is further evidence that the Age of Dogs is coming. Bark if you’re looking forward to it!
