She may be small, but she is an excellent protector.
In the late summer of 2007, I was entrusted with the care of a short coated Chihuahua by a Canadian breeder. Let's call the dog "L".
I was to bring L to handling classes in order to prepare him for Canada's largest dog show held annually in BC. L came to me at one year old completely un-housetrained, despite what the breeder initially told me. Because of this, whenever I was not home or unable to keep a close watch on him, he was crated. In comparison, Jemma had never been crated and had free roam of the house from day one, so it was all quite new to me.
As if being lied to about L being housetrained already was not bad enough, I soon realized that the breeder had allowed him to do his business inside his crate. In other words, it was easier for the breeder to let all the dogs go in their crates (and then mop it up) than properly train them. Excellent. Dogs normally do not like soiling their own 'den' unless they have no choice - this meant that a lot of times, L probably had no choice but to go right where he was laying.
L was extremely unreliable in the house and at first, we had used a big exercise pen with him to give him more space when we were gone, but he would manage to climb out and greet us at the door with poopy paws. Yuck. So a crate it was.
Unfortunately, based on his past experiences and his upbringing, he felt he had no reason to hold his pee at all and when he felt like he had to go, he went. Inside the crate.
One night, shortly after moving into a new rental and steam cleaning the carpets, Joe tucked him in to sleep in the spare bedroom we were going to devote to the pets. Because the carpet was clean, Joe lined the floor where his crate would sit with a large plastic bag in case he decided to pee in the crate in the middle of the night and it somehow leaked out. It had happened before.
This rental was a basement (half underground and half above) and it was rather cold, so to keep him warm, Joe also draped a thick blanket over the sides of the crate. The front end where the door is was still all exposed. Satisfied that he would be cozy and go to sleep soon, Joe turned off the lights and closed the door.
Our bedroom was across the suite from the spare room, separated in the center by the living room and kitchen. It was not a big suite at all - in fact it was very cramped. Jemma slept in our bedroom like usual as she will just sleep in until we do. She never wakes us up.
The next morning was Saturday, meaning we tried to sleep in a little, trying to get as much sleep as we could. However, my sleep was cut short in the late morning when Jemma got up and started barking urgently. In the first few seconds, I thought maybe she had heard some noise from the other suite or the landlord upstairs since everything was still new to her. Joe told her to be quiet, but she continued. By the way she was barking, I knew something was off and we decided to get up. I opened our bedroom door and she bolted out of the room and ran straight to the door of the spare room where L was kept.
Joe opened the door and to our horror, found that L had somehow managed to wrap part of his crate up with the bag that was lining the carpet to prevent any messes. The other openings were blocked by the blanket that he had draped over to keep L insulated and warm.
[In hindsight, the set-up to protect the rental carpet and to keep L warm was a bad idea. A deadly combo. We could not imagine that he would reach his paws out and grab at the bag and pull it in towards him. Lesson learned. I have been paranoid about plastic bags since that day.]
I did not see the exact scenario myself as I didn't go into the room with them, but it was described to me that the plastic bag was almost dripping with condensation. He could have died!! And the thing that still makes me sick to my stomach to this day was...he probably would have if Jemma did not wake us up out of the blue, out of her character, to rescue him.
What is astonishing to me is that although Jemma got along fine with L, she was not "crazy" about him the same way she is about me. Yet somehow, she sensed that L was in deep trouble and took the initiative to get him help. Having the jealous personality that she does, she could have easily not cared and continued to sleep. I have no words to describe how we are SO very lucky to have her.
We did not hear any sounds from our own bedroom and Joe is an extremely light sleeper - he even wakes up when Jemma licks! Therefore, we are still unsure of how Jemma knew...if her dog ears heard something unusual, if she heard him crying in distress, or if it was just a 6th sense. And we will never know.
But we do know that Jemma saved L's life and partially mine...if L had died from suffocation, I don't know how I could possibly live with that guilt in my heart forever. I would be completely devastated and the guilt would eat me up alive.
I only have Jemma to thank. She is my little 5lbs lifesaver. ♥ ♥ ♥
