Smokey is another rescue cat, more literally than the others. When I was volunteering on the Christiansburg Rescue Squad, we often responded as support for firefighters on fire calls. That was what happened one night in the autumn of 2000. There was a fire in a barn and neighboring trailer home. The occupants of the home were all out. We went to the scene in case one of the firefighters got injured.
We’d been there a couple of hours when one of the firemen walked up to us. He had a little bundle in his arms. It was a kitten, about 6 months old. It had some big burns on its back where the fur had melted to its skin, and its whiskers were burned off. I got out the sterilized water we use for burns and a pediatric oxygen mask and treated the kitten to the best of my ability. The other EMTs just stared at me like I had gone insane.
The owner of the trailer came by to check on the kitten, who they called “Princess”. He asked if I could take her, because they didn’t have anywhere to keep her. I said that was not a problem, we could exchange information and they could contact me when they were settled someplace and could take her back. He told me he meant that I should take her permanently.
Not long after, another team came to relieve us and I went home with the kitten, who I was now calling Smokey.
The next morning we went to the vet, got some antibiotics to prevent a lung infection after the smoke inhalation, and some ointment for the burned spots on her back. After a few months, the fur had grown back and now you cannot even tell that she was burned.
Here area some pictures of Smokey doing her second favorite thing, showing her belly (her favorite activity is eating, which is why we do not allow the cats to free feed – she would be even larger).
