Fearless Felines

Kevin Coolidge

What a surprise, the dog-centric media is once again focusing on canines. I’m tired of reading about these hero mutts. There’s Katrina, the black Labrador, who saved a man from drowning before rising waters claimed his life. Jump into water voluntarily? Then there’s Rocky, a Colorado police dog: he took a bullet while chasing down a burglar. Why run? No one was chasing him. Seems smarter to be where the gun isn’t. Dogs are such stupid butt sniffers.

Cats can be heroic too. There’s Sam, the Unsinkable. Sam started out catching rats aboard the German warship, the Bismarck. The captain went down with the ship, but not the cat. A British destroyer, the HMS Cossack, found him among the flotsam* and rescued him. Five months later a German submarine sank the Cossack, but not Sam.

Sam simply transferred to another British Navy vessel, the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. Within a couple weeks, that ship was torpedoed and sunk by the Germans. Sam was starting to be considered unlucky, and his royal majesty realized this cat needed to stay away from boats. Sam was transplanted to the governor’s office in Gibraltar, where he became a landlubber, never to sail the deadly seas again.

Cats are capable of police work as well. A stray cat, named Rusik, strutted into a police station in Russia. He had the uncanny ability to sniff out sturgeon. Smugglers would attempt to sneak through the fish, the source of expensive caviar, but no matter how ingenious, Rusik would find the poached fish. He quickly replaced the specially trained and expensive sturgeon-sniffing dog.

Rusik became internationally famous. The BBC did a news story on him. The public loved him; the criminal underground hated him. While Rusik was inspecting a car, the vehicle pulled forward and crushed him. He was killed in the line of duty. The Russian mob had put a contract on a cat.

Cats will even run into a burning building. On March 29th, 1996 an abandoned building burst into flames. Firefighter rushed to the scene in order to keep the fire from spreading. A fireman noticed a cat fleeing, and carrying a kitten. She limped over to a pile of four more, nudged each one, and passed out.

The mother cat had been raising her litter of five kittens inside the building. She could only carry one kitten at a time, which means she braved the inferno five times. Her ears were burned. Her feet scorched. Her hair was singed. Her eyes had swollen shut from the intense heat. How did she even know where she was going? Eileen Spinelli was inspired to write Hero Cat after reading Scarlett’s story.

The mother cat was later named Scarlett because of her red, burned skin. She was rescued by firefighter, David Giannelli, and rushed to a nearby shelter along with her five kittens, four of which survived. The kittens were adopted, and Scarlett found a home where she was spoiled rotten and lived comfortably for twelve years.
The Scarlett Award for Animal Heroism was named in her honor. It is given out by the North Shore Animal League of America, recognizing animals who risk their lives to save others, even dogs…

*Flotsam is floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo. Jetsam is part of the ship, its equipment or cargo that is purposely cast overboard to lighten the load in times of distress. Please note the difference in your notes. There will be a quiz.

Martyrs? Heroes? Survivors? Email me at from_my_shelf@yahoo.com and tell me what you think. Miss a past column? http://frommyshelf.blogspot.com to the rescue. Past columns have been saved. In times of need, a hero will rise. Hobo is such a fearless feline. He’s the lionhearted protagonist of “Hobo Finds a Home” about a cat who got when the getting was good…