/>Back on March 30, 1996, Scarlett and her five kittens were in an abandoned garage which was allegedly being used as a crack house in Brooklyn when a fire started.
The New York City Fire Department was called to put out a fire there and extinguished it quickly. Once the fire was finally under control, one of the firefighters on the scene, David Giannelli, noticed Scarlett was carrying her kittens one by one away from the garage.
Scarlett herself had been badly burned in the process of running into the fire so many times to save her babies. Her eyes were horribly blistered shut, her ears and paws burned, and her coat highly singed. That’s not to mention, the majority of her facial hair had been burnt off.
After finally saving the kittens it was noted that she touched each of her kittens with her nose to ensure they were all there and all alive.
She wasn’t even able to see them at that time as the blisters on her eyes made it quite impossible. She finally collapsed unconscious once she determined her children were safe and sound.
Scarlett and her entire family were immediately taken to a veterinary clinic at the North Shore Animal League in Port Washington, New York where they were all treated.
The weakest of all the kittens, a white-coated, died very shortly after from a virus a month after the fire. However, after three months of treatment and recovery, Scarlett and her surviving babies were all well healthy enough to be adopted, during which time one of the staff of the clinic stated that Scarlett was “spoiled rotten and treated like a queen”.
The heroine calico cat, who in 1996 made headlines around the world for pulling her five kittens to safety from a raging fire, lost her battle with multiple illnesses after living with her adoptive family in Brooklyn, New York for over 12 years.
This is a story which never gets old. We will never forget you, Scarlett!
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