Many animals dig: moles build mounds everywhere, voles too, although somehow not that impressive. Raccoons dig small holes, as do badgers, and somewhat larger ones. And although you can’t blame them personally – instinct wins – it can be very annoying, especially if it happens in your own garden. But what if man’s best friend starts digging right on your doorstep? Do you scold? Do you let him have his way, taking his play instinct into account? Or do you get the feeling that he wants to tell you something?
At least that’s the feeling that came to Chanell Bell when her four-year-old male husky, Kobe, started digging around the front yard fence shortly before Christmas. “I trust his judgment because this is not his typical behavior,” Bell told the magazine People. “He has a good instinct and never digs holes unless he helps me dig.” Since a gas leak had recently occurred in the quiet community in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Bell trusted “her intuition” and got her gas detector.
It turned out that the hole was actually leaking gas, and a lot of it. Chanell Bell alerted city officials. They immediately sent a repair team who discovered two more large gas leaks in Bell’s neighborhood. The repair took three days.
Apparently the leak could have even been fatal if Kobe hadn’t discovered it in time. “We were told it could have resulted in serious health consequences such as breathing problems, brain damage and even death,” Bell said. If a spark had come close to the gas leak, it would have caused an explosion. On the one hand, one learns from this that Philadelphia should urgently replace all of its old gas pipes. But above all, sometimes you should just let animals dig – they usually have better noses.
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