97-Year-Old Woman Says Cat's Yowling Saved Her From Fire

On Sun, 03 Aug 2008 07:31:33 -0400, jmcquown wrote:

wrote:
Magic Mood Jeep ? wrote:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,396531,00.html

Oh, great story, thanks for posting! And I loved the photo - that kitty
looked so sweet and devoted to her human, didn't she?

One thing I wonder, though. If the woman had the cat in her arms
because she was planning to put her outside, and then she smelled smoke
so she realized she had to get out immediately, why did the
firefighters have to rescue the cat from the house?

The cat probably jumped down and ran back inside. Maybe it wanted to
rescue a kitty-toy or catnip or something

Jill

When I had my house fire in 2002, my cat (Annabel Lee) ran and hid. The
fire was far enough along that I had to make the difficult choice of
leaving her behind, rather than staying inside and possibly dying with
her. The fire flashed over shortly after I got out of the house, and,
had I still been in the house at that point, I would not have survived.
While the flame damage was limited to just two rooms, the smoke level was
intense enough that, when I went through the house after the fire was
out, all of the interior walls were black with soot. Once my house
repairs were completed, which took three months, I adopted two new cats,
Cinders and Katie. Katie eventually had to be euthanized due to cancer,
but Cinders is still doing well.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

jmcquown wrote:
EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque) wrote:
Magic Mood Jeep © wrote:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,396531,00.html

Another good argument for promoting companion animals for the elderly!
(Although one wonders how "elderly" she can be, if she still wears
something as trendy as "bikini" underwear at age 97!)

Hey, she can sleep in the buff for all I care At least she was
wearing *something* when she went outside and flagged down a car!

LOL! (It only took one minor early morning earthquake, after I moved to
Los Angeles, to convert me to wearing nightclothes, again!)


Jill

On Aug 2, 4:21*pm, hopitus wrote:
On Aug 2, 1:37 pm, wrote:





Magic Mood Jeep ? wrote:

*http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,396531,00.html

Oh, great story, thanks for posting! And I loved the photo - that kitty
looked so sweet and devoted to her human, didn't she?

One thing I wonder, though. If the woman had the cat in her arms because
she was planning to put her outside, and then she smelled smoke so she
realized she had to get out immediately, why did the firefighters have to
rescue the cat from the house? Why didn't the woman just *bring the cat
outside with her*?? I read this sort of story a lot. The person has the
cat, they escape from the fire, and somehow, the cat's in the house and has
to be rescued?

I know, you can't second-guess someone's actions during a fire - a 97
-year-old, no less. And I'm not blaming the woman, I'm just curious as
to how that could happen. I always imagine that if my house were on fire,
I would probably go down with the house because I'd still be inside
trying to dig Licky out from behind some inaccessible place, or something.
I sure hope I wouldn't leave them behind!

--
Joyce * ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)

A bad memory button just went off in my head. Years ago, soon after I
had
returned to FL after almost 7 years in BayArea, CA, that terrible
Oakland Fire
happened; this sweet man in his 40's who was a friend of my sister and
I, DID
"go down with his house" as well as his 3 cats and dog whom he was
trying to
save from his blazing residence there.....he was one of the ones you
read about
but don't understand who refuse to come out before it's too late to
*get* out with
saving someone/something their only goal. My sis and his friends had a
memorial
service for him and his pets at Golden Gate Park soon after. I will
never forget him.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I remember that big fire in Oakland and report of the man who died
trying\ to save his pets.
I was visiting the Bay Area at the time and was glued to the TV
watching the news of
the fire.

Winnie

John F. Eldredge wrote:

When I had my house fire in 2002, my cat (Annabel Lee) ran and hid. The
fire was far enough along that I had to make the difficult choice of
leaving her behind, rather than staying inside and possibly dying with
her.

This is my biggest fear about fires. Although I said flippantly that "I
would probably go down with the house trying to extricate Licky", the
truth is, I don't know what I'd do when faced with such a situation. I
would never just leave them behind without a moment's thought, but, like
you were, I might be forced into doing it. Our own survivial is without
doubt our most powerful drive. It's a heartbreaking possibility.

In any case, I hope I'll never have to find out!

--
Joyce ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)

"John F. Eldredge" wrote in message
...

When I had my house fire in 2002, my cat (Annabel Lee) ran and hid. The
fire was far enough along that I had to make the difficult choice of
leaving her behind, rather than staying inside and possibly dying with
her. The fire flashed over shortly after I got out of the house, and,
had I still been in the house at that point, I would not have survived.
While the flame damage was limited to just two rooms, the smoke level was
intense enough that, when I went through the house after the fire was
out, all of the interior walls were black with soot. Once my house
repairs were completed, which took three months, I adopted two new cats,
Cinders and Katie. Katie eventually had to be euthanized due to cancer,
but Cinders is still doing well.


{{{{{John}}}}} You did the only thing you could in the circumstances. One
can prepare for that kind of disaster, but until it happens, they can't know
what they or their animals will do. I am sure Annabel Lee is waiting for
you at the Bridge and fully understands your decisions. I pray that I never
have to make the choice you had to.

Pam S.

When I had my house fire in 2002, my cat (Annabel Lee) ran and hid. The
fire was far enough along that I had to make the difficult choice of
leaving her behind, rather than staying inside and possibly dying with
her.

We had a fire on a floor below us when we lived in a top-floor tenement
in Edinburgh. We had to get out because of the smoke; the firemen gave
us oxygen on the way down. But by then the cats had vanished. Two
days later Mingus (always the bravest one) reappeared in the kitchen,
looking round at the mess. We looked where he'd come from and found the
other five all piled up behind the washing machine, presumably waiting
for him to report back. They were all ok.

==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === http://www.campin.me.uk ====
Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557
CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts

On Aug 9, 12:05*am, hopitus wrote:
On Aug 3, 2:13*pm, Winnie wrote:





On Aug 2, 4:21*pm, hopitus wrote:

On Aug 2, 1:37 pm, wrote:

Magic Mood Jeep ? wrote:

*http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,396531,00.html

Oh, great story, thanks for posting! And I loved the photo - that kitty
looked so sweet and devoted to her human, didn't she?

One thing I wonder, though. If the woman had the cat in her arms because
she was planning to put her outside, and then she smelled smoke so she
realized she had to get out immediately, why did the firefighters have to
rescue the cat from the house? Why didn't the woman just *bring the cat
outside with her*?? I read this sort of story a lot. The person has the
cat, they escape from the fire, and somehow, the cat's in the house and has
to be rescued?

I know, you can't second-guess someone's actions during a fire - a 97
-year-old, no less. And I'm not blaming the woman, I'm just curious as
to how that could happen. I always imagine that if my house were on fire,
I would probably go down with the house because I'd still be inside
trying to dig Licky out from behind some inaccessible place, or something.
I sure hope I wouldn't leave them behind!

--
Joyce * ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)

A bad memory button just went off in my head. Years ago, soon after I
had
returned to FL after almost 7 years in BayArea, CA, that terrible
Oakland Fire
happened; this sweet man in his 40's who was a friend of my sister and
I, DID
"go down with his house" as well as his 3 cats and dog whom he was
trying to
save from his blazing residence there.....he was one of the ones you
read about
but don't understand who refuse to come out before it's too late to
*get* out with
saving someone/something their only goal. My sis and his friends had a
memorial
service for him and his pets at Golden Gate Park soon after. I will
never forget him.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I remember that big fire in Oakland and report of the man who died
trying\ to save his pets.
I was visiting the Bay Area at the time and was glued to the TV
watching the news of
the *fire.

Winnie- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yeah, I heard about him from my sister as I lived in FL then and
BayArea
tv just gave passing notice to a huge fire on the other side of the
country.
He was not the only person who died in that fire, just the only one we
knew well. We also had friends in those three little isolated towns
above
and east of Oakland, they told us later the smoke and fear up there
were
horrific, and that fire fighters and equipment had been called in to
ward off
it spreading up to them from as far as Sacramento (100 miles east) and
San Jose(60 miles south).- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I also remember the smell of eucalyptus in the air as many eucalyptus
tress in
the Oakland area were burnt.

Winnie

Winnie wrote:

I also remember the smell of eucalyptus in the air as many eucalyptus
tress in the Oakland area were burnt.

If there's one thing eucalyptus does well, it burns. Those things are
a real fire hazard.

--
Joyce ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)

"Winnie" wrote in message
...

I also remember the smell of eucalyptus in the air as many eucalyptus
tress in
the Oakland area were burnt.

Winnie
========================
When we were living near Sacramento, we had a steep hill behind the rental
we were in. It was covered with Manzanita brush almost to the top of the
hill. That stuff was so full of sap that we were ordered to remove it by
the fire department. It had funny purpley red skin and the rings were mixed
purples, reds, and sand colors. Really pretty, burned right up.

Pam S.

Magic Mood Jeep © wrote:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,396531,00.html


I'm so glad they both got out safely!
Best wishes,
Polonca and Soncek