18 years ago, my old cat Loki literally saved my life by waking me up before the house started on fire. Here is a snippet from what I wrote at the time:

I was up in bed snoring away about 45 minutes ago and my cat woke me up. He was digging at my bedroom door and howling. I woke and yelled at him that he better have a damn good reason for waking me up at 4 in the morning and he did. When I followed him downstairs, as we walked passed the fridge, something popped. I screamed and the cat ran to the back door.

I called my ex-father-inlaw and tried to explain (at 4 in the morning) that the fridge smelled like smoke and was making popping noises. He came over and found out that cable that goes from the stove plug to the basement was sparking and smoking! It had frayed over time and one of the wires was bare. Right above where the cable goes to the basement and where the fridge is, water had been leaking from the roof, which may have been the cause of the sparks, popping and smoke from the cable. He told me that it would have started a fire had I not called him when I did.

I still think about him and that day more than a few times per year. He was a very special cat. I wrote about him a few years ago when he passed away. If you want a good cry you can read that here: https://heathermojelski.com/loki/ I can’t even read it, it makes me cry every time I do.