Some dogs earn the affectionate title of “good boy” for obeying their owners’ commands to sit or fetch. Others earn it by saving their neighborhoods from grappling with a potentially explosive gas leak days before Christmas.
Philadelphia’s Kobe the husky belongs in the latter category, according to a viral Instagram video published by his owner that has vaulted him to the status of internet hero.
In her video, Kobe’s owner, Chanell Bell, recounts how she noticed her four-year-old dog kept digging in a hole that was in the concrete of her front yard. Bell said she thought to herself, “This is not like him.” But she decided to investigate further because there had been a gas leak in her home in the previous weeks, and she was having problems with her heater.
Bell said she got a gas level reader, checked inside her home and found nothing unusual. However, when she spotted him digging in the hole in front of the house again on 21 December, Bell used the reader to check there, and it detected the presence of gas, she said.
Crews spent three days repairing the leak which Kobe had spotted, as Bell told it. Workers remarked that something as simple as turning on a light switch could have caused the flammable gas’s fumes to ignite and blow up Bell’s whole house, making the importance of Kobe’s alertness crystal clear.
“[It] was really, really mind-blowing,” said Bell, who provided footage from her home surveillance showing Kobe near the hole in question as well as the repair crews at work. “I’m so thankful – thankful for God, thankful for my baby boy [Kobe]. Yes – merry Christmas everybody.”
Asked Wednesday whether it responded to reports of a gas leak at Bell’s home, Philadelphia’s gas utility company said workers were “able to locate and successfully make the location safe”.
The company also made it a point to say that it introduces Mercaptan to the natural gas it administers to produce an odor similar to rotten eggs to allow for easier detection.
“Just like this customer, any time anyone smells a foreign odor or egg-like smell, they should immediately call” the utility company or first responders, Philadelphia Gas Works’ statement said.
As the pet care website WagWalking.com notes, dogs are particularly capable of detecting leaks from gas pipelines, which crews can then be sent in to repair.
The occasionally explosive results of gas leaks sometimes end up in news headlines.
An apparent gas-related explosion wounded 20 people at a hotel in Fort Worth, Texas, at the beginning of the year, according to authorities.
Meanwhile, nearly 300 miles to the west of Kobe’s home, an explosion killed six people and destroyed three homes in the community of Plum, Pennsylvania, in August.
State inspectors said they later found “detectable concentrations of combustible gas” throughout the Plum area. But investigators also said they had traced the source of the deadly blast to one of the homes.
Kobe’s attentiveness – and Bell’s description of him as the “dog who saved the block before Christmas” – won him praise from digital media consumers far and wide, especially those who frequent sites specializing in feel-good news stories.
“I love how you listened to him and your own intuition,” read one of the replies to Bell’s Kobe video. “This is beautiful. Dogs are SO SMART and so is mom.”
Another added: “That dog saved lives. Give him a medal.”
There was another reply which was liked by thousands of users that declared Kobe and the gas leak were worthy of a book plot.
“We need a children’s book with him as the protagonist,” that comment said.
Bell seemingly agreed – on 10 January, she published a book titled The Dog That Saved the Block Before Christmas.
As of Wednesday, it ranked as the top new release in the category of children’s books related to Kwanzaa, the seven-day celebration of African-American culture that begins annually on 26 December.
A website whose name contains the phrase “Good Boy Kobe” provides links to more information about the book as well as to a gas detector like the one that Bell said she used on the day her dog saved their home from possibly fiery consequences.