Just months after being rescued herself, Maggie May returned the favour.
The one-year-old wheaton terrier was honoured Monday for having wakened her owner, Suann DeCourcey, from a mid-afternoon slumber last November when their home's carbon monoxide detector went off.
Suann DeCourcey and Maggie May.
Maggie May was one of five four-legged heroes inducted into the Purina Animal Hall of Fame Monday in Toronto. The hall recognizes pets and service animals that demonstrate bravery and loyalty in saving the life of a human.
DeCourcey, who is deaf in one ear, awoke to find Maggie May sitting on her chest and licking her face. When she sat up, she heard the alarm. After trying -- and failing -- to turn it off, she called her daughter who told her to grab the dog and get out of the house.
"A firefighter told me he had seen lots of cases like this and I was one of the lucky ones. He said if I didn't have a dog to wake me up, I probably wouldn't be alive," she said.
"You realize when you get outside that you weren't thinking clearly (because of the carbon monoxide)."
DeCourcey, a nurse, retrieved Maggie May from D'Arcy's Animal Rescue Centre after the puppy mill that housed her mother was shut down.
"It was a double rescue," DeCourcey said. "We rescued her from an animal shelter and she rescued me from probable death from carbon monoxide."
Since the rescue, DeCourcey admits Maggie May has been getting pretty much what she wants.
"She has become very special. She always was but now she's even more so," she said.
Maggie May is adapting quite nicely to the spotlight, she added.
"She thinks she's a star. She walked the red carpet (at the awards ceremony) like she owned it. She posed beautifully for pictures," she said.
There are currently 138 animals -- 114 dogs, 23 cats and one horse -- in the Purina Animal Hall of Fame.
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