Tim Curfman was running a routine chore – taking out the trash – at his home in Alexandria, Minnesota, when his 4-year-old black Lab mix, named Midnight, started exhibiting some strange behaviors.

When Midnight perked up her ears and gazed up at Tim with a concerned look, he just knew that she must detect that something was wrong. Midnight led him to an area around the back of their house and subsequently convinced him to follow her to a specific spot in the snow.

Mind you, this was during one of the coldest weeks in Minnesota state history, right in the middle of the record-breaking polar vortex. Temperatures dipped well below zero that day. Anyone stuck outside in the dangerous cold risked getting hypothermia and dying within hours.

Tim quickly realized that Midnight had just made a lifesaving discovery: There, lying in the midst of the ice and snow, was their 87-year-old neighbor. She had slipped and fell while filling her bird feeder and was too weak to get up.

The elderly woman had been helpless in the bitter cold for at least 30 horrible minutes.

Time and time again, we see stories about canines whose instincts save lives and enhance the lives of many others. This instance was no exception, because if Midnight hadn’t pulled Tim toward their stranded neighbor, doctors say she could have suffered heart and respiratory failure, and eventually death.