Dogsey

Though Brandon Messerschmidt usually carries pepper spray with him to work, he left it in his truck on Monday when he risked his own life to rush into a burning home to save two pit bulls. The owner was able to get them out himself, but the valiant mailman led them to safety at a neighbor’s house.

The Michigan letter carrier was on duty when he came across a blazing attached garage in Commerce Township. Homeowner Mark Ruggles was trying to put it out with a hose, but within moments the fire spread to the house. His dogs, Diesel and Roscoe, were inside and now needed to be saved before the smoke and flames reached them.

“He started to cough a bit and ran around the house to get some air,” Messerschmidt said. “I went in through the back (of the house). By the time I got in, he had already taken the dogs out through the front.”

He took the pit bulls from Ruggles to let him continue to battle the blaze.
“I was a bit afraid at first,” he said. “They kind of drill into our heads in the mail academy that a dog is a mailman’s enemy.”

“It’s not really all that spectacular,” he said. “But it is what it is.”