The following two stories illustrate pets life-saving abilities:
Shanon had my full attention when she asked, “Did I tell you how my shelter-rescue cat, Lucy, saved our lives?”
“Seven years ago, my electric lawn mower’s large battery was rechargeable,” said Shanon. “I put the monster on my vinyl bedroom floor and plugged it into the electrical outlet. I then purr-omptly forgot about it, went out, came home late, and went straight to bed. I had recently begun sharing my room with my then eight-year-old rescue-tabby kitty, Lucy, closing the door at night.
Well, at 2 a.m., Lucy began kneading my shoulder in a very annoying manner. I kept pushing her away, but she wouldn’t leave me alone until I was fully awake. I then noticed an acrid burning smell coming from outside. I got up and closed the windows to stop any fur-ther smoke from entering my home. I climbed back into bed and fell right asleep.
Once again, deeply asleep, Lucy started kneading me again. Only this time it was with more urgency. Dig, dig, digging into my shoulder. I roused myself to shoo her away. That’s when I realized the acrid smell was stronger, overwhelming and inside!
Then it hit me! The battery plugged in on the floor!
I jumped out of bed, opened the bedroom window, and went to the battery which was red hot! I pulled the plug and fetched my oven-mitts. What next? I didn’t know what to do with a smoldering-dangerous battery that was melting the floor! I retrieved a cookie sheet, lifted the battery on to it, carried it outside and slid the smoking thing off onto the cement driveway.”
Shanon returned to her smoke filled home, turned on bathroom and oven fans and opened all her windows and doors to clear the smell. She then went over to Lucy Lu, picked her up and gave her “the biggest hugs ever!”
“Lucy quite possibly saved all our lives including my mother, our two Yorkies, and her brother Desi! My smoke detector didn’t come on, but Lucy’s nose did!”
Another time, Shanon’s neighbor has a mouse in her house, so she carried Desi and Lucy over there to “work”.
“They loved the adventure! This is a win, win situation for everyone but the mouse. The cats are now purr-fesional rodent-ridders. When I go on holidays they will be comfortable staying with their ‘Auntie’. We both wish we had thought of this before!”
Tips ‘n’ Tales reader, Ellen is in her late 70's and she admits, “If it were it not for my dog, Mimi, there are days that I simply couldn't face getting up in the morning! She’s a life saver who constantly lifts me out of loneliness and depression. One day, as I was walking her or rather she was walking me, she stopped to ‘water’ the grass when a man paused to talk to her.
Mimi has this odd growling-bark-talk, so the confused man took a step back. I explained, ‘Look at her tail, it is happily wagging. She isn’t barking, she is talking to you!’ He bent back down to pet her and said that he believed ‘that each busy day, one must stop and smell the roses. Today, Mimi is my rose!’.
It felt good interacting with a paws-itive stranger; and by the smile on his face, it looked like Mimi had also lifted his spirit. Having a dog brightens my world.”
