Cat Saves Florida Family From Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
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VOLUSIA COUNTY (CBSMiami) -- A Central Florida couple is crediting Bella for saving their lives. Bella is not their daughter or their dog, she is their cat.
Paul and Leona Jones say when they got home from eating dinner on Feb. 27, they just wanted to get inside out of the rain.
In their haste, they forgot to push the off button on their car.
It sat in the garage all night emitting carbon monoxide, silently poisoning the entire house.
At around 1:00 a.m., Bella started crying and woke them up.
Weak from inhaling so much carbon monoxide, Leona was barely able to call 9-1-1.
Fire fighters administered oxygen to the couple and Bella then took them to the hospital.
"If she hadn't cried and hadn't woken him up, we would have never known and we would have slept though it," said Leona adding, "and never woken up."
The couple has since put up great big reminder signs in the garage to turn off the car and installed carbon monoxide detectors.
As for Bella, she's getting plenty of extra treats.