- Scarlett the cat
Scarlett the cat is a former stray cat whose efforts to save her kittens from a fire, at serious harm to herself, attracted worldwide media attention and has been related in a number of nonfiction books. She has also become one of the animals featured by the shelter which treated her and her kittens, the North Shore Animal League, in their fund-raising and public relations efforts.
Kittenhood
Scarlett's sire and dam are unknown. She was probably born in June or July 1995Fact|date=October 2007.
Female domestic cats are fertile from six months of ageFact|date=October 2007; their gestation period is about two months.Fact|date=October 2007 As a stray cat, Scarlett probably had her first litter at about eight months old.Fact|date=October 2007 If the kittens were her first litter, she was probably about nine months old, the equivalent of the mid-teens, when she became a heroine.The fire
On
March 30 1996 , Scarlett was in an abandoned garage allegedly used as a crack house inBrooklyn ,New York , with her five kittens when a fire started for undetermined reasons. The fire department responded to a call about the fire and quickly extinguished it. When the fire was under control, one of the firefighters on the scene, David Giannelli, noticed Scarlett carrying her kittens away from the garage one by one. Scarlett herself had been severely burned in the process of pulling her kittens from the fire. Her eyes were blistered shut, her ears radically burned, her paws burned and her coat seriously singed. The hair on her face was almost completely burned away. After saving the kittens, she was seen to touch each of her kittens with her nose to ensure they were all there and alive, as the blisters on her eyes kept her from being able to see them, and then collapsed unconscious.Recovery
Gianelli took the intact family to the veterinary clinic of the North Shore Animal League, in
Port Washington, New York , where Scarlett and her kittens were treated. The weakest of the kittens, a white one, died of a virus a month after the fire. However, after three months of treatment and recovery, during which time one of the staff of the League stated Scarlett was "spoiled rotten" and treated like a queen, Scarlett and her surviving kittens were well enough to be adopted.Worldwide media attention
The story of this feline mother's heroic efforts to save her kittens attracted worldwide media attention, and the League received 7,000 letters offering to adopt Scarlett and her kittens. They ultimately chose to divide the kittens into two pairs, and the two pairs of kittens were given for adoption to residents of
Long Island . Scarlett herself was adopted out to Karen Wellen. In her letter, Ms. Wellen indicated that, as a result of losing her cat shortly after being injured in a traffic accident herself, she had become more compassionate and would take in only animals with special needs.The Scarlett Award
The North Shore Animal League has created an award named the Scarlett Award for Animal Heroism in her honor. This award is presented to animals that have engaged in heroic acts to benefit others, whether humans or animals.
Further reading
*cite book|last=Driscoll|first=Laura|title=The Bravest Cat!: The True Story of Scarlett|year=1997|others=illus. DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan|publisher=Grosset & Dunlap|location=New York|id=ISBN 0-448-41720-0
*cite book|last=Martin|first=Jane|coauthors=and J. C. Suarès|title=Scarlett Saves Her Family: The Heart-warming True Story of a Homeless Mother Cat Who Rescued Her Kittens From a Raging Fire|year=1997|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York|id=ISBN 0-684-84288-2
*cite book|last=Weinstein|first=Emily Eve|title=Cat Book|year=2002|publisher=Beau Soleil|location=Huntington, W.V.|id=ISBN 0-9666085-8-5ee also
*
Fred the Undercover Kitty , a cat who was honored by New York Law EnforcementReferences
* [http://www.nsalamerica.org/feature/mothersday/ Scarlett and her Kittens at the North Shore Animal League site]
* [http://www.moggies.co.uk/html/scarlett.html Scarlett - Cat of the Century]
* [http://www.patronsaintpr.com/samples/CB/cbobd.htm Excerpts from "CAT BOOK"]External links
* [http://www.infinitecat.com/movies/scarlett.html Quicktime Video of Scarlett with her kittens]
* [http://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/famous/scarlett.html Purr 'n' Fur Famous Felines]
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