Bella is tiny and only 11 months old, but her insistent, urgent barking on Monday night has been credited with saving a family of four from tragedy.
And the dog's owner Jo Conroy says she cannot bear to think about a different outcome from the fire that gutted her children's bedroom. She has spoken to the Chronicle of her terror at entering the smoke-filled bedroom and being unable to see her children after being alerted to the fire by the barking of Bella at about 8.30pm.
"I thought she was barking at my son, who was hanging something out the bedroom window."
But Bella wouldn't let up. Ms Conroy thought the dog was barking at neighbours because of a snipping sound, like garden pruning. But the sound was flames licking along the side of the wooden villa on the corner of Dublin and Keith streets.
"I told her to be quiet, but then she was just going crazy, barking insanely."