Mariposa County dog hailed hero for alerting owner of fast-moving wildfire near home

MARIPOSA COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- A 10-year-old German Shepherd may have saved hundreds of acres from being burned and a handful of structures from being destroyed.

"I've had her long enough to know when she's barking at something and if she's afraid of something," said Bill Frost.

Frost was sitting on the back porch of his ranch watching TV early Wednesday when he says his dog Patchy was running around and acting out of character.

"She kept running up to me barking and then whine and then run out the door and down to the gate. I said something is wrong," he said. "I happened to glance up and saw all the smoke above the trees and I said we've got a fire."

Frost and his sister live on over one thousand acres combined in rural Mariposa County.

Patchy's barking alerted them to the smoke which led to a call to 911.

"She hasn't been that forceful and it's a different bark and a whine and it's not her," Frost said.

A few hundred acres burned but no one was hurt as firefighters quickly doused the flames.

Frost is just thankful for Patchy and her heroic act.

"I'm buying her some new food. And if she wants one of my beers she can have one of those, too," he said.

A fitting reward for a loyal dog and a job well done.