Local Cat Nabs Award for Saving Guardian From House Fire

PETA Will Honor Kitty With a Special Gift Basket

For Immediate Release:
November 1, 2019

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

A Heroic Cat Award is on its way from PETA to Kitty—the cat who saved her guardian, veterinary student Danielle Schafer, by alerting her to a fire in their apartment in the early hours of Monday morning.

Kitty jumped on her guardian until Schafer woke up, rushed to her kitchen, and saw the flames—but when she returned to the bedroom to save the cat, she couldn’t find her. Distraught, Schafer ran outside and screamed for help—and she even broke her bedroom window and attempted to climb back into the building to rescue Kitty before a neighbor stopped her. That broken window saved the cat from smoke inhalation: Seven hours later, firefighters found her curled up in a duvet, safe and unharmed, in the only room that hadn’t been engulfed in flames.

Schafer, who adopted Kitty off the street five years ago, told PETA, “She is a true miracle. I saved her, then she saved me.”

“Kitty’s unconditional love and bravery meant the difference between life and death for her best friend,” says PETA Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “Rescued animals rescue us right back—and PETA encourages anyone with the time and resources to care for an animal to adopt a lovable cat like Kitty from the street or a shelter.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. The group notes that adopting a cat saves a life: More than 6 million dogs and cats enter U.S. animal shelters every year, and half of them have to be euthanized because there simply aren’t enough homes for them all.

Schafer will receive a framed certificate along with a special gift basket containing toys and vegan treats for Kitty.

For more information about PETA, please visit PETA.org.