Dog Saves Owner From Fire - Dies Trying To Save Family Cat

[matcom]

<snip>

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. --After a disabled woman's cat started a house fire, her specially trained dog came to the rescue, then died trying to help the cat still in the house. Jamie Hanson said the 13-year-old dog named Jesse brought the phone so she could call 911 and also brought her artificial leg.

"She got me outside and then she heard the cat upstairs and she went up there to get the cat and she wouldn't come back to me," Hanson, 49, said at a news conference Monday at Aurora Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center where she was being treated for her injuries.

She received third-degree burns to an arm in the fire Sunday night at her home in the town of Rhine south of Elkhart Lake, the Sheboygan County Sheriff's Department said, adding that both pets died in the fire.

Hanson, who lost a leg in a car accident three years ago, said she was on the couch watching television when the cat ran over the back of the couch.

"And he jumped onto a table that had a candle on it and tipped it over and lighted the artificial plants on fire," she said.

Hanson said she fell off the couch and was unable to get her artificial leg from the table, "so my dog got my leg for me and went and got the phone and brought the phone to me so I could call 911."

She said she tried to put the prosthetic leg on, but it was too hot, and the dog, a golden retriever-German shepherd mix, came to her aid again before going back inside for the cat.

When rescuers arrived, the house was fully engulfed in flames, the sheriff's department said. Hanson was in the doorway and was assisted by a deputy.

She was no longer being treated at the hospital when The Associated Press called Monday evening for further comment.

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/10/16/cat_starts_house_fire_dog_saves_owner?mode=PF

[SoyCat]

1. I've never thought cats and candles are a good mix. If you've got cats,

keep them in a different room when the candles are lit. Many a cat has caught its tail on fire and then caught a house on fire, as well.

Poor doggie.

[hedgehog]

2. This was a terrible event, but it does remind me of some

of the weirder things that have happened over the years. We set up a small Menorah on the dining room table and lit Hanukkah candles. Our cat Smoky brushed up against it and singed some of his outer fur. The next year, he managed to set some of his fur on fire. We had to grab him and put the flames out before he ran off through the house. His winter coat was so thick he never knew what the fuss was about.

[NewWaveChick1981]

3. That sweet dog died because of human stupidity.

:cry: Never, NEVER have a burning candle around a cat. Even I knew that when I was a five-year-old. :cry: I'm sorry for the cat too.

[lizziegrace]

4. The cat was just doing what cats do

:cry:

Damn. That didn't have to happen.

[NewWaveChick1981]

5. I know. I blame the owner.

:cry: That was definitely preventable.

[pokerfan]

6. A few months ago

A barn caught on fire on a farm outside of town. Only a woman and her dog were home at the time and they were both in the house. She was on the computer and oblivious. The dog could see the fire from one of the windows and kept coming into the computer room and whining & whimpering, eventually barking. Finally, after all his warnings had gone unheeded, the poor dog resorted to nipping his owner on the leg which finally caught her attention. The fire was discovered and while the barn was a loss (no animals, just hay), the fire was prevented from spreading.

[Sanity Claws]

7. The article is a good warning for the rest of us

I have cats and I burn candles. I never realized what a bad idea it was. I will, in the future, burn candles only in the bathroom away from anything flammable.