Rod and Michelle Ramsey, of Morrow County, OH, care for 19 cats on their farm, with 4 of that number being strictly indoor pets. The others were spay/neutered after being abandoned, and are free to come and go. Michelle told the News Journal that 8 of those cats turned up along with the current economic downturn.
Tiger is one of the cats dropped off at the farm, and after saving the couples lives last week, he is now getting a place of honor in the Ramsey home. One day last week, both Rod and Michelle had headaches and just wanted to sleep. “He was in the house,” Michel told a reporter. “He’s a very vocal cat and started going crazy. He was begging me to let him outside.” With Tiger’s insistence keeping her up, Michelle called the vet about another of the couple’s cats, Babes, and told veterinary assistant Julie Higgins, how she was feeling. Julie immediately suspected carbon monoxide poisoning and asked if the family had turned their furnace on for the season. They had, and leaking fumes had seeped into the Ramsey home, threatening the couple’s lives and the lives of any cats inside along with them.
A call to the Johnsonville Fire Department resulted in a trip to the hospital by ambulance for the couple, even though Rod and Michelle thought they had been sickened by food poisoning and not the poison gas. They realized the seriousness of the situation when told by paramedics that the emergency responders were amazed that the Ramsey’s were still alive, let alone awake. The pair were flown by helicopter to Ohio State Medical Center for intensive oxygen therapy.
Tiger, Babes and veterinary staffer Julie Higgins all get credit for saving the couple’s lives before they drifted off into a sleep that they would not have awakened from. Tiger also saved his own life and those of any other cats who may have been in the house at the time.
