Good Boy, Riley

Bulldog Saves his Family from a House Fire!

Riley and co-owner Nicole Kowalewski take a rest after playing in the park.

By Julia Szabo

With his undershot bite, tough-looking mug, and hilariously loud snore, the English Bulldog is a canine clown -   no wonder he appeared so often in the old "Merrie Melodies" cartoons! But the Bulldog has a serious side too. The proof is a brindle bully boy named Riley, who will most certainly change your perception of Bulldogs.

"Riley is my hero," says his grateful owner, Nicole Kowalewski, and she's not kidding. In June, Nicole brought Riley - then a 7-month-old pup - with her to visit her parents in New Jersey for a Father's Day celebration. With Nicole's sister and her nephews also there for the festivities, it was a full house, but she opted to stay the night instead of driving back to her boyfriend's New York City apartment. "I was going to leave," Nicole recalls. "Thank God I didn't.

Correction: Make that "Thank Dog." In the middle of the night, normally strong, silent Riley woke Nicole from her sleep with non-stop whimpering. "I used to be a heavy sleeper, but since getting Riley - he's my first dog - I like to keep an eye on him." What Riley did next surprised Nicole: "He jumped off the bed and stood by the bedroom door," she remembers. "I'm like, What's up with you? So I opened the door, and he ran down two flights, to a door in the family room that leads to the garage. I saw a flicker of light and thought, Who left the light on? But Riley wouldn't stop circling and barking until I opened the door."

It wasn't a left-on light; it was the beginning of a serious electrical fire, and part of the garage was already in flames. The home's smoke detectors hadn't yet picked it up - but Riley had, and he dutifully sounded the alarm. Nicole went upstairs to alert the rest of her family, with Riley following close at her heels.

Everyone made it out, but the Kowalewski home sustained serious damage. Even after everyone was safely outside, Riley was still on high alert. He ran across the street, causing the entire family to run after him - just as an aerosol can that was stored in the garage exploded with a bang. "Riley wanted us away from the house, and he knew how to get us there," Nicole explains. For anyone who still believes dogs don't communicate, Nicole has proof to the contrary: "It's like he was saying, 'I got you out of the house. Don't you get it? Get across the street!'"

For his amateur heroics, Riley got lots of attention from the professional heroes who put out the blaze. "As we were thanking the firefighters, they were petting and thanking our dog," Nicole recalls with a smile. Nicole's family wanted to thank Riley too; her dad suggested taking the dog to a diner for a human-food feast. "I said, 'Nope, we're going to PetSmart and we're buying him anything he wants.' And that's what we did. He got so many treats: Kongs, Nylabones, rope toys, a flying disc, balls ... basically, if he was sniffing at it for more than two seconds, it went in the bag. We spent a couple hundred that day!"

Today, the blessed Bulldog truly earns his name. He's living the life of Riley, enjoying romps on the beach with his grateful "grandparents" and his girlfriend Mindy (a French Bulldog and Boston Terrier mix), rides in the Volkswagen Eos convertible - "We have a safety harness for him, and we keep the air conditioning on even with the top down, so he's always comfortable and safe," Nicole explains - plus naps on his very own Tempur-Pedic dog bed; TV time with Nicole's boyfriend (the guys enjoy watching baseball and soccer together); and meals served in a comfortable raised feeder, washed down with filtered Brita water and ice cubes. "Riley saved my family - he pretty much gets catalog order and special treatment from now on," Nicole promises. "I'm so proud of my puppy!"