purrsandhisses.com

PHOTO BY: TOM BAUER of the MISSOULIAN.

An early morning St Patrick's day fire took the lives of several pets, but spared one lucky kitty.
When firefighters arrived at the Missoula home they were relieved to find no people, but soon realized there were some four-legged residents still there. A neighbor saw an adult cat on the roof leap to safety. Inside the front door was a tiny kitten.

"He wasn't breathing too well," said Firefighter Brett Cunniff, who scooped up the tiny body and gently carried it outside into the fresh, cool air. "So I put some oxygen on him."

Minutes later, the kitten was in the back of an ambulance, cradled in the arms of emergency medical technician Paige Ostanhowski, who held an oxygen mask to a button nose turning a healthy shade of pink.

"He's awake - and scratching," said Cunniff. "He" eventually turned out to be a she.

The casualties included an adult female cat, two other kittens and a pet rat. An adult male cat and another kitten remain unaccounted. As for the kitty:

"Animal Control has checked on her several times. So have the paramedics and the EMTs," said technician Char Ross.

"She's a little scared. Anything that crinkles or sounds like fire, she runs into her box," Ross said.

But the kitten, which Ross estimated to be about 4 to 6 weeks old, was chowing down on canned cat food. "She's doing really good."

Animal Control's Johnson said she spoke with the kitten's owner and left it up to her as to when to retrieve it.

"She's got a lot on her plate right now," Johnson said.

The folks at Pruyn didn't know the kitten's name.

But Missoula Police Sgt. Sandy Kosena, who was at the scene when Cunniff brought the kitten out of the burning house, had a suggestion.

"They gotta name it Smoky," she said.

For the entire article by Gwen Florio click here.