By Adele
We’re not superstitious, but Yul demonstrates daily how exciting life with a black cat can be. He’s always in touch with his “dark side” and pushing his limits.
But if the chips were ever down, we know Yul would be the one with the brains, guts, and strength to save us.
Like a plucky black “moggy” named Salem in Rochester, England, who recently saved his careless owner, Lucy Thompson. She started a fire in her apartment at 4 a.m. by leaving a candle burning in the living room that ignited the furniture.
The place was filled with smoke when Salem started biting Lucy’s hand and scratching her face to wake her. The cat’s cool head and quick thinking saved not only one of his lives and Lucy’s, but allowed her to rouse the neighbors and grab her other cat, Syrius.
Eat your heart out, Lassie.
And in California, an anonymous black cat got himself rescued on January 17 from the top of a power pole, where he’d been precariously standing for as long as four days. Electricity was briefly cut off to 1,700 customers of Pacific Gas & Electric in the Martell/Jackson area so rescuers could reach the cat safely in a cherry-picker. He knew he was getting a life back and didn’t resist.
No one knows what sent him up the pole in the first place, but he had the sense not to try tightrope-walking on the live wires.
He was wearing a collar (but no tags) and is very friendly, so the people keeping him at the Martell animal shelter hope his owners come to claim him.
January 28, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Cats are excellent fire alarms, I’ve learned first hand. When an apartment in my building caught fire, our cats freaked out long before any human came around to yell “fire.” However, I’m not sure my super-goofy black cat Herman is the one I’d turn to save us if the chips were down. That job would go to Brody tabby my Maine Coon.
January 29, 2008 at 9:42 am
Pure-white Fred is our alarm system here, although I still think Yul has heroic potential. Unless I’ve got an early-morning meeting that throws Fred off, I never have to set the alarm because he’s on me by 6 a.m., licking, biting, pulling my hair, meowing, crashing his paw across the metal mini-blinds, peeing in the hallway. whatever it takes to get me out of bed. I shudder to think what he’d do to me if there was ever a real emergency. I’d probably end up in the hospital. –Karen
May 24, 2008 at 6:53 pm
my black boy does the same thing…only he starts at about 3 in the morning.