Oh my God Bruiser's on fire! (he's not hurt)

I was feeding Bruiser and Maya some tuna just a few minutes ago when
Bruiser brushed up near a lit candle and his fur caught on fire. He
never even realized he was on fire but a patch of fur was burning. It
looked like he had a zippo lighter burning on his flank near his tail.
It went out with a couple of quick pats from me. No more candles, ever.
I had no idea all that long soft fluffy fur could go up like that. He
doesn't even have any bare patches of skin just a lot of burnt looking
hair tips. He's sitting on my chest purring as I type this unaware of
what happened. Man that could have been really bad if I hadn't been
standing right there.

Lucky you were right there! I had to give up candles too. Bootsie was just too
much of a little fire-bug, and always had singed whiskers.

John Biltz wrote in message
thlink.net...
I was feeding Bruiser and Maya some tuna just a few minutes ago when
Bruiser brushed up near a lit candle and his fur caught on fire. He
never even realized he was on fire but a patch of fur was burning. It
looked like he had a zippo lighter burning on his flank near his tail.
It went out with a couple of quick pats from me. No more candles, ever.
I had no idea all that long soft fluffy fur could go up like that. He
doesn't even have any bare patches of skin just a lot of burnt looking
hair tips. He's sitting on my chest purring as I type this unaware of
what happened. Man that could have been really bad if I hadn't been
standing right there.


Unattended cats and naked flames are a really bad idea. During the summer we
spent a lot of time in the conservatory, with candles burning on the window
ledges. Izzi jumped up and tried to negotiate her way around them, and at
one point was stood directly over one of them. I caught her and cooled her
warm tummy with cold water, luckily it was just her fur that was a bit
singed.

Fenda set fire to her tail once, by standing in front of the gas fire with
her tail in the air. I didn't notice until I smelled burning fur, then I
grabber her,.ran into the kitchen, wet my hands thoroughly and damped her
tail down. Again, the heat hadn't got to her skin, because her fur was so
thick, but it could have been a lot worse. Burning fur STINKS by the way.

On Sat, 1 Nov 2003 16:53:09 +0100, "lewe"
wrote:

John Biltz skrev i
diskussionsgruppsmeddelandet:0001HW.BBC89F1A002D7
link.net...
| I was feeding Bruiser and Maya some tuna just a few minutes ago when
| Bruiser brushed up near a lit candle and his fur caught on fire. He
| never even realized he was on fire but a patch of fur was burning. It
| looked like he had a zippo lighter burning on his flank near his tail.
| It went out with a couple of quick pats from me. No more candles, ever.
| I had no idea all that long soft fluffy fur could go up like that. He
| doesn't even have any bare patches of skin just a lot of burnt looking
| hair tips. He's sitting on my chest purring as I type this unaware of
| what happened. Man that could have been really bad if I hadn't been
| standing right there.

scary indeed, purrs.
I only light candles right on the table in front of where I am sitting,
other than that I do use those little things kept in some glass thingy that
are not so easy to get to and can't be tipped over.

Bono got a little burnt on his chest once at Christmas, at my parents'. My
mum put this little ornamental x-mas candle, shaped like a bowl of porridge
(what we give Santa when he visits) on the counter, at the end close to the
kitchen table where we were eating. Unfortunately that is the same patch of
counter were B keeps his glass of water for drinking. In this case a candle
probably would have been better, that he could have seen before he took the
jump from the floor ...
Anyway he just burnt some tips of the chest fur, enough to smell a little.
He was OK, my mum was of course more shaken ...

They say a word to the wise is sufficient: candles and small
children and pets don't mix. (Also unthinking people).

A number of years ago, I went to a party where the hostess had lighted
candles It looked lovely. We had placed our coats in the front
bedroom and a few minutes later, I went in to retrieve something from
my purse. Just as I walked in a gust of wind blew the curtain toward
the candle on the dresser. Luckily I was able to move fast enough to
blow out the candle before the inevitable happened. This is just one
incident that convinced me to ban candles from my house.

"m. L. Briggs" wrote:

A number of years ago, I went to a party where the hostess had lighted
candles It looked lovely. We had placed our coats in the front
bedroom and a few minutes later, I went in to retrieve something from
my purse. Just as I walked in a gust of wind blew the curtain toward
the candle on the dresser. Luckily I was able to move fast enough to
blow out the candle before the inevitable happened. This is just one
incident that convinced me to ban candles from my house.


We have a lot of candles all over the house. They're very pretty,
artistic, and charming. They're also unlit. The fireplace is lit, but
only when we're in the living room, the screen is in place, and the cats
are watched. The older ones know better, but the babies...

Pam S.

In article nk.net, John
Biltz wrote:


I had no idea all that long soft fluffy fur could go up like that. He doesn't
even have any bare patches of skin just a lot of burnt looking hair tips. He's
sitting on my chest purring as I type this unaware of what happened. Man that
could have been really bad if I hadn't been
standing right there.


How frightening! What a relief that Bruiser is ok. He keeps you busy.
Suz
Iron Chef Macmoosette
Thank Heavens There's Only One
=^..^= =^..^= =^..^= =^..^= =^..^= =^..^=

Chocolate heals all wounds.

On Sat, 01 Nov 2003 07:22:01 GMT, John Biltz
wrote:

I was feeding Bruiser and Maya some tuna just a few minutes ago when
Bruiser brushed up near a lit candle and his fur caught on fire. He
never even realized he was on fire but a patch of fur was burning. It
looked like he had a zippo lighter burning on his flank near his tail.
It went out with a couple of quick pats from me. No more candles, ever.
I had no idea all that long soft fluffy fur could go up like that. He
doesn't even have any bare patches of skin just a lot of burnt looking
hair tips. He's sitting on my chest purring as I type this unaware of
what happened. Man that could have been really bad if I hadn't been
standing right there.

Oh, I feel for you! That *is* frightening for sure. As a practicing
Wiccan, I have candles galore all over the place. I used to have them
on the floor. Yeah, you can see what's coming. *Bad* idea. Geesha,
my familiar at the time, had a huge, long, white fluffy tail that
grazed a candle, and like you, I was right by and put it out quickly
just with my hand. Took me one other time of the same thing happening
before I said That's it! No more candles on the floor!"

Glad everything was okay for Bruiser :-)

Ginger-lyn

Fat Freddy wrote:
Here's a link to a little story called "Puffy's Exploding Tail" about
my brother and I and our cat Puffy when we were kids. It was a quite
exciting event and nobody was hurt.

http://www.flippyscatpage.com/puffy.html

If that's the one I'm thinking of where you thought you had
accidentally prepared roast cat, that's one of my favorites!

We, too, have memories of burning cat-fur! When we lived in Bay Area, CA, in
the 80's, the ignorant Floridians (fireplace? is that what you make s'mores
in?) used to go around the surrounding neighborhood collecting discarded
wood furniture to use as *firewood* in our fireplace in our new-to-us
hillside dwelling....little did we know that for some reason, hacked-up
furniture wood *explodes* in burning and throws sparks and burning embers
all over the living room! Fat Hopitus1 used to doze right in front of that
metal thing one puts in front of the flames, and when his back began glowing
and I could see tiny flames erupting in his fur I grabbed the nearest throw
rug, wrapped his startled self up in it (he hadn't even noticed he was on
fire; Hops was the kinda guy who you could set off a rocket next to and
wouldn't budge) till I could see only singed spots on his back....and was
sure he was "out".
No more hacked-up furniture discards after that; we were happy to pay for
those "cords" of whatever local wood they sold outside the grocery stores
and have a peaceful, snoozing Hopitus in front of the fireplace........



"Ginger-lyn Summer" wrote in message
...
: On Sat, 01 Nov 2003 07:22:01 GMT, John Biltz
: wrote:
:
: I was feeding Bruiser and Maya some tuna just a few minutes ago when
: Bruiser brushed up near a lit candle and his fur caught on fire. He
: never even realized he was on fire but a patch of fur was burning. It
: looked like he had a zippo lighter burning on his flank near his tail.
: It went out with a couple of quick pats from me. No more candles, ever.
: I had no idea all that long soft fluffy fur could go up like that. He
: doesn't even have any bare patches of skin just a lot of burnt looking
: hair tips. He's sitting on my chest purring as I type this unaware of
: what happened. Man that could have been really bad if I hadn't been
: standing right there.
:
: Oh, I feel for you! That *is* frightening for sure. As a practicing
: Wiccan, I have candles galore all over the place. I used to have them
: on the floor. Yeah, you can see what's coming. *Bad* idea. Geesha,
: my familiar at the time, had a huge, long, white fluffy tail that
: grazed a candle, and like you, I was right by and put it out quickly
: just with my hand. Took me one other time of the same thing happening
: before I said That's it! No more candles on the floor!"
:
: Glad everything was okay for Bruiser :-)
:
: Ginger-lyn
:

Glad to hear Bruiser is okay. Sounds like he keeps you busy.

Ann

John Biltz wrote:

I was feeding Bruiser and Maya some tuna just a few minutes ago when
Bruiser brushed up near a lit candle and his fur caught on fire. He
never even realized he was on fire but a patch of fur was burning. It
looked like he had a zippo lighter burning on his flank near his tail.
It went out with a couple of quick pats from me. No more candles, ever.
I had no idea all that long soft fluffy fur could go up like that. He
doesn't even have any bare patches of skin just a lot of burnt looking
hair tips. He's sitting on my chest purring as I type this unaware of
what happened. Man that could have been really bad if I hadn't been
standing right there.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Here's a link to a little story called "Puffy's Exploding Tail" about
my brother and I and our cat Puffy when we were kids. It was a quite
exciting event and nobody was hurt.
http://www.flippyscatpage.com/puffy.html

Wow, amazing that no one (human or otherwise) got hurt in that episode!
Let's see, among things that could have happened:

- You could have fallen backwards and cracked your heads open (that's
why my father used to yell at us about rocking back in our chairs -
forget the linoleum!)

- You could have choked on your Wheaties

- You could have set the cat on fire

- You could have baked the cat

All in all, I'd say you fared pretty well.

Joyce

PS - your name isn't really Freddy??