She is her master's best friend, but when the occasion called for it, she became an entire family's lifesaver.

She is Lingling, a German shepherd.

A 41-year-old Sichuan man by the surname of Dan looks calm caressing Lingling inside the living room of his Chengdu home in the local petroleum machine plant compound.

What happened here a few days earlier was anything but serene. As a matter of fact, it reminded him of a thriller, having set his heart thumping with fear.

Just recalling the event brought back the emotions.

"Without Lingling, my shepherd, we would have been finished," Dan said.

It was a picture perfect family evening, with typical post-dinner activities. Daughter Yunyun took a shower and went to bed at about 9 pm. Dad was watching TV on the sofa in the living room while mom Li Nushi was knitting a sweater in her bedroom.

Nobody realized at the time that Yunyun had forgotten to turn off a gas valve, and an imperceptible gas leak soon set Li's head spinning.

Since Li had been in poor health for quite some time, Dan did not think her sudden dizziness so unusual. He asked her to go to bed early.

"But soon afterwards my head also started swimming and I dozed off on the sofa," Dan recalled.

While in a state of "sleep," Dan felt Lingling suddenly shaking and pulling him. But he was so out of it that he fell into a stupor again. About one hour later, Dan woke up and found himself lying by the door, about a meter away from the sofa.

"I must have been awakened by the chilly wind from the hole in the door and the window by the door," he said.

Lying beside him, Lingling held his left arm with her mouth. She was gazing at him, teary-eyed.

"She must have realized the danger. After she failed to wake me up with her claws and, suffering from gas poisoning herself, she must have pulled me by my left sleeve and dragged me to the door inch-by-inch," Dan figured.

When he came to, Dan found that his wife and daughter had lost consciousness, with white foam coming out of the corners of their mouths. Struggling to open the door, he wobbled to the nearby plant hospital for help.

A paramedic team rushed to his apartment and rescued his wife, daughter and Lingling.

"The aftermath would have been unimaginable if Dan had regained consciousness just a little later," said Tang Xiaodong, the doctor who treated the family.

According to Li Daye, Dan's father-in-law, Dan purchased then-1-year-old Lingling from a peddler at a market last July. The shepherd wasn't house-trained when she arrived in Dan's home and did not get off to a harmonious start with her new family.

Once when Dan was feeding her and gently petting her, he was almost bitten. But it was an isolated incident and she has since gotten along quite well with the family.

Lingling has a considerable appetite, consuming 2.5 kilograms of beef daily as well as exotic food like pig's hearts and liver. But she has proven to be a worthy addition and a proud guardian of her adopted family.

"A few months ago, she scared away a thief who was breaking into our home," Dan said proudly.

(China Daily January 21, 2005)