Dog saves family from burning home yet again

By Jenny Montgomery

Strawville, Ind. (Concocted News)  – A dog saved a family of six from a roaring house fire, making him the first dog ever to rescue his own family from a burning house on three separate occasions.

The five-year-old Bordie Collie mix, Rufus, awoke the family shortly after midnight on Tuesday.

“Rufus comes into my room, and he’s all, ‘Bark, bark, bark!’,” said mother of four, Tonyalee Scruggs. “At first, I was like, ‘Shut up, dog!,’ but then I realized I smelled smoke.”

Scruggs jumped out of bed and ran to the room where her four children were sleeping. “I bursted in there and started hollering at them kids to get up and get out of the house.”

Scruggs’ oldest daughter, 17-year-old Madonna Jones, recalled the panic in her mother’s voice.

“Tonyalee came in our room, flapping her arms like a goddamned goose,” Jones said. “Whenever that happens, you know her boyfriend went and set the house on fire again.”

Lyle Purliss, Scruggs’ boyfriend and father to her two youngest children, had fallen asleep on the couch while smoking, starting the blaze.

“Sometimes, I get to watching TV for so long, I just get all tired and fall asleep,” Purliss said while lighting a cigarette. “I should have learned from them last two times I was watching TV and fell asleep and set the house on fire.”

The family had recently moved into the two-bedroom home after their previous home – and before that, apartment – had burned to the ground due to Purliss’ errant cigarette embers.

“Words cannot comprehend how mad I am at Lyle,” Scruggs said. “If it wasn’t for Rufus, we might all be dead, or burned to a crisp, or worse.”

When asked if he intended to stop smoking, Purliss said, “I don’t think my smoking is the real issue here. It’s more a issue of there needs to be more entertaining TV on late at night so it keeps me interested and I don’t fall asleep.”