For Rocky and her three rescue cats, the routine is well-established. At 4:30 am, she gets up to feed Craven, Alejandro and Shadowmoon, before going back to bed. But on this particular morning, nothing went as planned. At 6 am, Alejandro started pestering her. He jumped on the bed, meowed louder than usual and refused to let her sleep.
Annoyed, Rocky pushed him away several times. She thought it was just a whim from her ginger cat, who was known for being the shyest and clumsiest of the bunch. "He was so persistent that after five minutes, I finally got up to put him out," she said. It was only when she stepped into the hall that she finally understood the urgency of the situation.
A suspicious smell in the kitchen
A distinct smell of gas was hanging in the air. Rocky followed Alejandro to the kitchen and discovered the unthinkable: one of the knobs on the gas cooker was on. The owner suspects Shadowmoon, the youngest and most curious of the cats, of having accidentally turned the knob while jumping on the worktop.
Panicked but quick to react, Rocky immediately turned off the gas supply and opened all the windows to air out the flat. It was only when she collapsed onto her sofa that she realised the scale of the disaster she had avoided. Without Alejandro's heroic intervention, the leak could have caused an explosion or fatal poisoning for the entire household.
The unlikely hero with nine lives
This rescue is all the more remarkable because Alejandro has come a long way. A former stray from Tennessee, in the US, he lives with Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV). He lost all his teeth due to dental disease and has lasting neurological damage from a bout of meningitis. Despite his fragility, his survival instinct has remained intact.
To reward her saviour, Rocky gave him a mountain of treats. She has also taken drastic safety measures by fitting childproof locks on her cooker knobs. On social media, users are praising the courage of this little miracle, who has proved that even the clumsiest of cats can become a true guardian angel.
