Peanut the parrot likes to imitate noises he hears on a daily basis. That might be annoying to you, but for 33-year-old Shannon Cowell, it's the sweetest sound on earth. That's because his bird wound up saving his entire family, after their Muncie, Indiana home caught fire last Friday.

Cowell and his 9-year-old son had both fallen asleep on their living room couch after watching a late movie. They were awakened by what they thought was the sound of a smoke alarm about 3am and discovered a roaring blaze quickly spreading through their home. The pair scrambled out of the burning structure just in time, as flames gutted their dining room, kitchen and bedrooms.

But while the smoke alarm had gone off, it turns out that's not what woke the duo up. The Amazon parrot (similar to the one pictured, top left) had begun to mimic the sound of the warning signal, alerting the dead-to-the world father and son about the danger in their home. "He was really screaming his head off," Cowell recalls. "I grabbed my son and my bird, and got out of the house."

As bad as things are, Cowell is counting his blessings. He claims he runs a lot of noisy equipment like an air conditioner in his bedroom and if he'd fallen asleep there, he might not have heard anything at all. And if his parrot hadn't chirped in with its own help, none of them might be here to tell the story.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.