Last week we wrote about a German shepherd saving the life of a man who’d collapsed in his apartment. This week we’ve learned of yet another critter who came to the rescue in a situation that surely would have ended the life of a Colorado toddler.

According to CBS News in Denver, it’s early November, and Meagan is baby-sitting with a two-year-old. As our story begins, Meagan is in the bathroom and Hannah, the baby, is in her playpen.

As the emergency occurs, the toddler is silent, uttering not a sound. But Willie, Meagan’s pet, senses danger and is anything but silent. Willie begins screaming at the top of his lungs making the loudest fuss possible.

Meanwhile, Meagan hears her pet making this great commotion. "Something’s wrong and I’d better check on Hannah," Meagan must be thinking.

The sitter leaves the bathroom only to find Hannah lying on her back, silent as a lamb, but her lips by now have turned blue. The child is suffocating!

Quickly, Meagan recognizes the problem — the child is choking on her Pop Tart. Meagan does a gentle but firm Heimlich maneuver and the obstruction if dislodged. Hannah begins breathing once more and a potential disaster is averted.

Meagan is a heroine in this scenario, but only because the warning was sounded by Willie, the family pet. This time the hero is not a German shepherd. Willie is a parrot! The talking bird recognized the baby’s distress and began squawking, screaming and flapping his wings in an effort to summon help. I said Willie is a talking parrot. Strangely, he kept repeating a term he’d undoubtedly heard many times before: "Mamma’s baby, mamma’s baby." Willie screeched it repeatedly until Meagan came and rescued the child.

I don’t know how you feel about this rescue mission, but I think Willie definitely deserves a cracker.