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Titan the pitbull receives award for saving owner twice

Gloria Benton of Lawrenceville, Georgia, is lucky to be alive.

Last July, Gloria's husband, John, was on his way to work when their pitbull, Titan, blocked his exit.

As John prepared to leave for work, he told Titan to go upstairs to be with Gloria, who was recovering from back surgery at the time. Moments later, Titan bolted back down the steps and started frantically running back and forth between the couple's bedroom and the front door, FOX 5 reports.

"He'd run up a few flights of steps and run back down just to keep me from going to let me know something was wrong," John told the Humane Society.

John went upstairs and found Gloria on the floor. She had suffered a brain aneurysm, then fell and cracked her skull.

"What the doctor said, had it not been for this dog, if he had let me leave that house, she would have either bled to death or the aneurysm would have killed her. And it's, like I said, we owe a whole lot to this little rascal. It's not about the breed but the way they are raised," John told FOX 5.

Eight weeks ago, six-year-old Titan came to Gloria's rescue once more, the Gwinnett Daily Post reports. At 4:30 a.m. one morning, Gloria fell in the bathroom, breaking her hip. Titan alerted John, who then took his wife to a nearby hospital.

On July 24, the Humane Society of the United States honoured Titan's "acts of heroism" and was named the second runner up in the Humane Society's National Dogs of Valor Award.

"Gloria ... being here [is a testament of] just the amazing effort animals can make to save humans," said Jessica DuBois of the Humane Society.

This isn't the first official recognition for the pitbull. Last year, Titan was named "Neighbour of the Year" by Vintage Pointe Neighbourhood Association, Huffington Post reports.