2 lucky kittens escape a housefire

My last consultation of the morning was a very emotional one. A young couple brought in their two 5 month old kittens Belle and Jasmine with suspected smoke inhalation.

They had been woken at 2am by smoke pouring through their ceiling and a fire burning their house. The neighbours semi-detached home had caught alight and it has spread into their home. They were able to get all 6 cats out of the house (luckily the neighbour had no pets), but Belle and Jasmine took fright with the fire engines arriving and darted indoors through the catflaps.

The owner was ready to rush in after them but the house was full of smoke so 1 fireman went in to find them. The owners were both very shaken and emotional and both exhausted. I was thrilled to put their minds at rest that both kittens were fine. The smell of smoke in my room was very strong but both kittens were bright and Belle was purring so much that I struggled to hear her chest sounds.

I asked the owners where the fireman had found the cats and he said he had not asked but was sure that they would been to hide under the stairs - their favourite hiding place when strangers enter their home. They were born in that very spot. I reassured him  that this would been an ideal spot as the smoke from upstairs would not have travelled there. All I advised was bathing both kittens as they would have licked the smoke off their fur. What an ordeal for all of them!

This entry was posted on 13/10/2008 at 03:49 pm and is filed under A veterinary day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.