The Cat Who Saved Himself from the Fire
A young Everett boy's pet cat makes a daring escape by leaping into a water tub as the family home burns down.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
EVERETT, Wash., July 13. 'Moses,' the pet cat of Roy Pettit, little son of Mr. and Mrs. Mort Pettit, saved one of his nine lives by a rare bit of animal intelligence a few days since. When the Pettit residence caught fire, Moses was forgotten by all save little Roy, who made frantic efforts to escape from his mother and rush to the rescue of his pet. He insisted that the cat was being burned alive and refused to be comforted, but suddenly his tears ceased to flow and he gave a cry of joy. Moses had saved himself. Although a little tardy in scurrying from the burning building, and with his fur on fire all over, Moses knew exactly what to do about it. Like a streak of fire the cat dashed past the crowd and leaped into a tub of water that stood under the garden faucet. In another moment, with his singed fur bedraggled and his whiskers all burned off, Moses was clasped to the breast of his little master.
“Like a streak of fire the cat dashed past the crowd and leaped into a tub of water.”
Animal-interest stories have been a staple of the local press for over a century, serving as a brief respite from the heavier news of the day. This vivid account captures the kind of small-town reporting that defined early 20th-century journalism in Washington.
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