A Nova Scotia couple’s elderly boxer is being credited with saving their lives and those of their other three dogs after a fire broke out in their home on Christmas Eve.

“One of our dogs, the big boxer, shes very old and shes not well, so she doesnt move too quickly … she just kinda popped up to her feet, which took me by surprise,” Margaret MacDonald told The Cape Breton Post. Roxy then trotted into the living room, where a fire had started around the Christmas tree.

She was making sounds that I have never heard come out of her in all of her 15 years. She ran back out to my office and then grunted at me, MacDonald said. Roxy ran between the living room and MacDonald’s office making these sounds a few more times before MacDonald decided to take a look.

The entire corner of the living room was engulfed in flames by the time MacDonald saw what Roxy was trying to warn her about. She screamed to her husband, grabbed her purse and the dogs leashes, and the MacDonalds and their dogs ran to the back door. But the fire had created a sort of vacuum seal around the door. Her husband had to kick the door in order to open it.

“Were lucky to be alive, MacDonald said. I think there was someone looking over us. I can tell you that because my husband told me when he looked back he saw a red fireball coming at him. Literally, coming through the hall.

Perhaps she’s right. Maybe someone was looking after them that Christmas Eve — someone even beyond good old Roxy. The MacDonalds lost all their belongings in the fire except two. When they returned to what was left of their home on Sunday, they found two undamaged items: Two angel ornaments. They’re the only belongings that didn’t get scorched.

How could they be there all in one piece? an incredulous MacDonald asks.

She will surely be holding those angels — and a certain old boxer angel — very close for a long, long time.