Heroic Cat Honored: A Very Special Feline

Purrsonally I think that black cats are good luck especially to those folks fortunate enough to be owned by one. And apparently I am not alone in this belief.

According to an article I "magically" ran across the other day, posted on the Montana Great FallsTribune's website, Trudy and Greg Guy were definitely blessed when they opened their hearts and home to a rather amazing "foster" kitty. And I am completely sure they would agree with my sentiments. On Saturday, April 10, the Great Falls Animal Foundation held its annual Fur Ball. Honored at this festive occasion by winning the Purple Paw award was this very special two and a half year old kitty named Schnautzie.

According to Sally Cerny of the Animal Foundation, Schnautzie epitomizes the reason the award is given. She said, "The goal is to find an animal who, in a very special way, shows the human-animal bond. There's no more special way to show that than to save your family."

In late 2007, when Schnautzie was just a six-month-old kitten, she demonstrated her feline "intuition" by sitting on Trudy's chest while she was sleeping. In describing Schnautzie's amazing deed, Trudy said, "[Schnautzie] would pat me on my nose with her foot ... and then sniff the air like a dog." Since this was rather unusual behavior for the kitten, Trudy was sure that Schnautzie was trying to convey a message to her. Trudy continued by saying, "It was bothering me ... I knew something wasn't right."

So she got up to investigate the possible source of the kitten's apparent upset. She heard a "roaring" sound in the bathroom, and quickly found that the gas pipe outside the bedroom had broken about three inches above the shutoff valve, which caused the gas to flow without being regulated down into the basement. Trudy added, "I went into the bathroom and opened the window and the gas was just fuming. Our house was saturated in a short time."

What was even more dangerous and frightening to the couple, due to the freezing cold temperature that night, it was possible that the furnace could be switched on automatically at any time, which could potentially cause a spark to ignite those fumes. Trudy's husband Greg added, "If the furnace had kicked on or the hot water heater ..."

The extent of this nightmare didn't register fully for Trudy until the following day just how close they had come to a total disaster, even though the firefighters who responded to their call told her how dangerous the situation was due to the gas levels in the house. Trudy said, "The house could have blown up."

But I think the most remarkable part of this story is that when the scary event happened, Schnautzie was not even "their" cat. The Guys were just fostering the shelter kitty for the Pet Paw-See. Naturally this story has a very happy ending. Since the couple could not bear to part with her, they eventually ended up adopting the beautiful black cat for themselves. Trudy said, "She just worked her way into our hearts."

Do you have an amazing story about your pet? Tell us by leaving a comment.