By Steve Wagner

Dogs can easily become a nuisance, especially when they must be house trained, taken to the veterinarian for their annual shots, and scratch the furniture.

But when keen canine instinct is responsible for saving two human lives those things are quickly forgotten.

Such is the case with Sassafras, a bouncy two-year-old boxer living with the Nettelfield family.

"Sassy" was the sole source of alarm which awakened 15 -year old Marta and alerted her to a fire in the kitchen.

Marta said she had gone to be at 11pm and was sleeping when Sassy, who had been resting on her bed, jumped up and started whining and pawing at the blankets. Marta tried to quiet her, but Sassy was insistent that she get up.

Marta went to see what was the matter and discovered the smoke. She escaped with her sister Lara, only her eight months old, and of course Sassy.

She said because of the heavy smoke she had to grope her way through the living room to the front door.

Firefighters indicated that Sassy's timely warning had indeed saved the two girls lives. If they had stayed in the smoke filled house, it would have only been a matter of minutes before they would have been overcome by the smoke.