LIFE STORIES / MY CAT SAVED MY LIFE / HISTORIAS DE VIDA - MI GATA ME SALVÓ LA VIDA.

Hi my dear friends, today we're going to read  about a "life story" and a cat. Pets are very important to us and to our lives. It's demonstrated that a life with a pet is a "better life".  I hope you'll like this story! 
Dedicated to cats' lovers!

Hola mis queridos amigos, hoy vamos a leer sobre una "historia de vida" y una gata. Las mascotas son muy importantes para nosotros y nuestras vidas. Está demostrado que la vida con una mascota es "una vida mejor".  ¡Espero que os guste la historia! 
¡Dedicado a los amantes de los gatos!


Info: from Speak Up magazine.
Photos: royalcanin.es/ gatodomestico.com / veterinatiogatos.com

MY CAT SAVED ME FROM A FIRE  by Claire Hopkinson.

Early one morning last February, my cat Tink jumped onto my legs. I was fast asleep and she woke me up, which had never happened before. It was completely uncharacteristic:  she sleeps downstairs and never comes into the bedroom.

As she insisted and insisted, I sat up feeling groggy because I'd been out the night before, but I soon realized something was very wrong. The room was half-filled with white smoke, hanging in the air about one metre deep like a bank of white cloud.


PANIC!

I woke up my partner, Russ, in a panic and we jumped out of bed. As we made our way through the thick smoke, I was still trying to process exactly what was going on, and the danger only really hit me when I went out on to the landing.

Our son Jake, 19, had woken up, and as he opened his brother Scott's door, black smoke came out.  The smoke from Scott's room went up to the ceiling;  it was only then that the smoke alarm was triggered.  Scott, 22, emerged, shouting above the noise that he was struggling to breathe. I phoned the fire brigade, who told us to leave the house as quickly as we could.


NEIGHBOURS

Obviously we didn't want to leave our belongings behind and we dind't want to leave Tink behind,  but we couldn't find her and what was even worse, we knew we had no choice. We had to get out of the house!  We assumed Tink had slipped out of the house, too.

Within minutes, six fire engines arrived. As I stood in the road, I looked at our house and realised that the source of the fire was actually our next-door neighbours -flames were licking the front of her house. She had also managed to get out and was later taken to hospital for smoke inhalation. I couldn't even imagine what was happening in our house as the smoke poured out of the windows. I couldn't bear to look.

WHERE'S TINK?

For half an hour, our two houses were sprayed with water until the firefighters were satisfied that the fire was out. By now, however, our assumption that Tink was safe began to falter. We assumed she had managed to escape, but there was no sign of her. Russ told a firefighter and, even though he wasn't meant to, he went back into our house to look for her.


A MIRACLE

After a few moments he emerged with Tink over his arm. She was completely limp. She wasn't breathing and her tongue was hanging out. He had found her behind a cupboard in Jake's room. We assumed she was dead, and I felt heartbroken; she had saved us but died in the process. Then the firefighter put an oxygen mask on her and incredibly she took a breath and coughed. She was alive!  Groggy and stinking of smoke, but alive! Thanks to the firefighter, she was alive!!!!


A SENSE OF LOSS

As our house was totally wet and smoke-damaged, we had nowhere to live, so Tink went to my daughter Lesley's while we stayed in a hotel for a month.  It took weeks to recover from the trauma of what had happened. One corner of our house had been burnt and all our belongings were ruined. I was especially devastated to lose all my photographs and couldn't bear to open a cupboard to see what was salvageable. It all felt dreadful, but at least we were alive.

SIXTH SENSE

When we went to visit my daughter, it was clear that Tink had been traumatized, too. She was timid, refusing to leave my lap when I tried to get up. We have moved into rented accomodation while our house is renovated and Tink has finally come back to us.

The source of the fire was electrical. The firefighters told us we would have had six minutes to get out before we died in the fire, so Tink's sixth sense saved us!  She could have deserted us, but she came up to the most dangerous smoke-filled area to warn us. Generally, it is said that cats aren't known for their altruism but Tink seems to be the exception!!! Or, simply, cats are as altruistic as other animals!


VOCABULARY

-I COULDN'T BEAR: no pude soportar.
-TO FALTER: flaquear.
-LIMP: sin fuerzas.
-TO COUGH:  toser.
-TO STINK: apestar.
-LAP: regazo.


HAVE A NICE DAY MY FRIENDS!
SEE YOU!