Pup alerts owners when smoke fills their home

POST FALLS – Karen Greer says her life is wrapped up in her Yorkshire terrier puppy. So it’s fitting that the spunky dog, named Jordan Johann, recently saved Greer’s life.

It was in the middle of the night in late June that the dog, which will be 1 year old in August, woke his owners to alert them of smoke filling their Post Falls home. Karen and Kevin Greer were sleeping with their bedroom door closed.

Before turning in that night, Kevin Greer had left a pot of peas with a wooden spoon on the kitchen stove.

At about 3:30 a.m., the dog, which usually sleeps with the couple, started to nose Kevin Greer out of slumber. Stuffed up by allergies, he couldn’t smell anything and let the dog out the bedroom door.

The dog returned, whining and whimpering. Jordan Johann next wakened Karen Greer, who smelled the smoke and found the charred wooden spoon and the pot of peas looking like “itty-bitty rabbit pellets of charcoal,” she said.

“The smoke was burning my eyes,” Karen Greer said. “I know what would have happened. … If Jordan hadn’t been in this house, the house wouldn’t be here.”

The couple was in the process of painting and had taken down the smoke detectors. Karen Greer credits her dog’s “sixth sense” for sniffing the smoke, which likely would have turned into flames, she said.

“I was, like, maybe we’ll keep the dog after all,” Kevin Greer said wryly. “He definitely saved a more serious situation.”

The dog has been like a son to her, Karen Greer said. Jordan wore a miniature tux to the couple’s October wedding, and Karen toted him in baby blankets with her to work when he was a pup.

“You’re gorgeous. You’re my angel,” she cooed to the dog on a recent afternoon.

The perky animal, with a coat of black and brown fur, rolled on the floor and performed for a treat.

The dog is dear to her heart, Karen Greer said – now, in even more ways.

“I’m just thankful,” she said.