IT’S ALL ABOUT THE ANIMALS ~ CAT HEROES:A GUEST BLOG BY ‘ANIMAL INSTINCTS’ AUTHOR PATRICIA ROSEMOOR

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It’s All About the Animals: Cat Heroes

A Guest Blog by Patricia Rosemoor, Author of Animal Instincts

Patricia-RosemoorIn ANIMAL INSTINCTS, heroine Skye Cross is comforted by her rescue animals after her brother is murdered. Her three cats and brother’s dog are special, because they were mine before crossing the rainbow bridge.

I love cats, always have. I love dogs, too. And horses. Animals in general.  But cats are my pets of choice. We always hear about dog heroes, but rarely about cat heroes. So I did some digging to see what I could find.

A man fell out of his wheelchair and couldn’t get up because of osteoporosis pain and side effects from mini strokes. When the police answered the 911 call, they found an orange and white tabby next to the phone. The owner, who couldn’t have gotten to the phone, said he had trained the cat to hit a button that dialed 911.

A street cat saved a young woman from a poisonous snake. The woman was feeding two strays when she noticed the snake clearly about to bite her. One of the cats jumped on it and fought it until it slithered away.

A 7-year-old girl’s cat saved her from an attempted sexual assault when a man brought her inside his home, put duct tape over her mouth and tried to remove her pants. The girl’s cat attacked him and she escaped. Thankfully, the man was arrested later.

I had a couple of hero cats of my own. Before I was able to move into my 2-flat that I had already bought, I was still living in a third floor walk up apartment in a courtyard building pressed up against others. Buildings in the neighborhood were being set on fire at the time, apparently because the owners couldn’t sell them but could collect insurance. (I had seen one such fire across the street the week before.) It was a Sunday, and I’d been out late, so I was sleeping in. How annoying that both my cats were on the bed screaming at me and pouncing on me. Annoying until I realized thick black smoke was rolling in my window. Someone had set fire to the third floor apartment in the building next to mine. I got the cats out of the bedroom and into the room farthest from the fire and went down to see what was going on. Only afterward did I realize that if the fire had spread to my apartment, I wouldn’t have been allowed to go back in to rescue them. Something to remember in case of potential disasters—get your pets out with you!

The holidays from Thanksgiving to the New Year is a time of giving, and I’m hoping that this year, those of you who can will support an animal shelter or sanctuary or zoo, whether it is by volunteering, buying gifts that help the organization or by donation. Here are a couple of places that I support:

PAWS Chicago, with it’s adoption center, spay and neuter clinic, and at the forefront of animal advocacy.

Lincoln Park Zoo, one of the last free zoos in the country.

Humane Society of the United States, the nation’s largest animal protection organization.

Tell us about your pet or an animal story that will make us smile.

Happy holidays!