It's Dont F*ck with Kittens Friday MKF!! 8/19/2005

[WebWarlock]

Saw this news bit and had to share it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9007670/

Kitty survives jolt, fire and fall from power pole
Nevada feline suffered hair loss, but is otherwise fine, firefighters say

GARDNERVILLE, Nev. - A cat in Nevada is recovering from a foray atop a power pole that left it jolted, frizzled and dazed — and with a little less fur.

Firefighters believe the cat touched a relay switch on the 25,000-volt line while checking out a bird’s nest. It fell from the 40-foot pole and sparked a fire outside a firehouse.

Firefighters found the singed cat near the base of the pole. They assumed it was dead, until they noticed it was breathing. They put it on a blanket and gave it oxygen.

It turns out the burns weren’t as serious as they looked. One of the firefighters says “the fire just burned all his hair off.”

The cat is expected to make a full recovery, and will be put up for adoption if no one claims it.

Ok so here is today's/this weekend's question.

What incredibly stupid thing did you do that you just got to walk away from?

I was doing some electrical work at a friend's house and I *thought* I had killed all the current in that end house. So my friend comes over as says "is that safe?" I say of course I grab a live wire with my Leatherman pliers (which not insulated btw) and green electrical flashes went everywhere. The ONLY reason it didn't drop me right there is because the aluminium pliers were also in contact with another wire and the electric arced through it and not me (thus the green electrical discharge).

I went down and killed the power to the entire house after that.

Warlock

[supertramp]

I fell down a small waterfall once.

I went down to the bottom of a mountain (because I was on a pilgrimage with my mother and there was nothing better to do that climb up or down mountains) and found a stream with a sort of path across it - rocks jutting out of water just like you see on cartoons except they were very slippery. The guy I was with managed to get across them but I slipped and fell into the stream - it was a very very slippery sort of flat surface. I ended up grabbing some long grass on the bank as I slid down but the current was too fast and I was swept off with it - the stream widened quickly into a small river with a freaking waterfall at the end. By the time I reached the waterfall I could no more slow myself down than sprout wings and fly away so I ended up going down the waterfall into the plunge pool at the bottom. Lucky for me a short way away there was a sort of island which I could climb onto or I don't know where I would have ended up. Obviously it was terrifiying at the time but it was also SO fun. Not so much fun trying to climb back up a steep mountain littered with bracken in soaking wet clothes though.

[Tiggrscorpio]

I'm a Director in the Housekeeping department of a hotel. One day we had a particularly large flood, so I was helping my team clean up. I was running one of the wet vacs. I went to unplug the machine to move the cord to a different outlet. I was standing in a few inches of water and thought the machine was off. Luckily I wasn't seriously injured but it sent a shock thorugh me that had me feeling very strange all day.

[tybee317]

my friends and I were riding our bikes at the beach and we had been having a few cocktails. While coming out of my cousin's driveway, I did not look for cars on my right. A car hit me, and somehow I retained some sense, I tucked and kind of rolled over the hood and onto the ground. I was ok except for some road rash and my bicycle had to go to the shop. That was not one of my best moments, I felt like a giant doofus.

Another time, I was cranking the boat up off the trailer to clean it or something. The boat slid back on the trailer and the trailer popped up, the winch caught me in the middle of my chest, but luckily the winch snagged my bra. There I was, suspended in the air hanging by my bra, a front end loader. I was yelling for my gf to get me down. Thank god for Vicky's Secret, they pulled through for me

[Anne860]

Well, I got hit by a car when I was 11 or 12 years old. It wasn't a head on collision thanks to the driver's quick reflexes, otherwise I wouldn't be typing this. Rather, I was sidewiped by a car while crossing a road to board the school bus by myself (usually it was done in groups in front of the school). To this day I don't remember why I didn't see or hear the car. Being a dreamy kind of kid, I was very easily distracted, and something probably caught my attention. What I do remember is the squeal of the tires as the driver tried to swerve out of the way, the impact as her rear end clipped me, then lying in the middle of the road looking up at the sky and thinking, Dad is going to kill me when he finds out about this.

It was this thought that got me to my feet, and I was ready to just walk the rest of the way home rather than risk having having to explain to my parents how I basically walked in front of a speeding car without noticing. Foolishly, the school decided to call my dad and an amubulance, which I thought would be used to take my body away after my dad was through.

Miraculously, the EMT found I was unhurt except for a big bruise on my leg. I was certainly in better shape than the school counselor who was supervising at the time. (Dad told me later he could see her career flashing before her eyes.) Fortunately, they declined to sue the school, partly because they understood how hard it is to keep an eye on a 100 kids at once, and partly because they were of the opinion that if you do something stupid--like crossing the street without looking first--it's no one's fault but your own. More importantly--at least to me--they also decided not to punish me because they were so relieved I was okay. Besides, being hit with a ton of metal is a pretty good lesson about safety in and of itself. To this day I still look both ways before crossing and wince whenever I see someone jaywalking on a busy street.

What's funny is that a few months later a caution sign with a flashing light was set up at that very same intersection. I still live near there, and every time we pass it on the road, my father has to remind me why it's there. Gee thanks, Dad

Anne

[WebWarlock]

Another one!

Gotta love the name too.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10241592/from/RSS/

Miss Kitty headed for new home in Canada
Animal rescuer who reunited late owner with ‘miracle cat’ is new owner

MSNBC
Updated: 4:40 p.m. ET Nov. 28, 2005
Miss Kitty is heading for a new home in Canada.

Following the untimely death last week of her owner, Bill Harris, the “miracle cat” that he credited with helping to save him from drowning during Hurricane Katrina is going to be leaving Louisiana soon for points far north with Donna Wackerbauer, an animal rescue volunteer who was instrumental in reuniting Harris and Miss Kitty after the storm.

Wackerbauer also will be taking two other cats and a dog she inherited during her three-month stint saving four-legged, feathered and scaled victims of the storm in the Slidell, La., area as a member of the Noah’s Wish animal rescue organization.

The other newcomers are “Funk,” a cat named after the license plate of the truck where he was found wedged between the tailgate and the bumper; “Cullion,” a kitten with congenital birth defects who arrived with “a big laceration on his skull”; and “Boudoin,” a dachshund cross-breed who was found in a debris pile.

The new arrivals will bring Wackerbauer’s menagerie at her 5.8-acre farm in Summerland, British Columbia, to a total of six cats and three dogs.

“I’ve had 26 foster cats, plus mine, at one time, so we’ll make do,” she said Sunday as she made preparations to depart Slidell. “It’s part of the whole rescue thing.”

Horace Troullier, the Slidell animal control officer who was the other half of the team that found Miss Kitty, also expressed interest in caring for the famous feline. But Wackerbauer said she won out since his home was wrecked by Katrina and he’s still living in the city mechanic’s shop while waiting to move into a FEMA trailer.

Wackerbauer, who plans to run a boarding and grooming service for dogs and cats from her newly purchased farm, said the death of Harris, 63, last week made for a sad ending to what was otherwise an enriching experience.

“To me, it reinstills the sense of community, that people have the ability to overcome,” she said. “… I wish other people could come down and witness what we’ve seen, because it would make then so much more appreciative of what they have.”

Meanwhile, family friends were planning a private interment for Harris at a family plot in Shreveport, La. (Click here to read Harris' obituary.)

And Noah’s Wish is working on plans to permanently commemorate the saga of Harris and Miss Kitty in Slidell.

The Placerville, Calif.-based organization has pledged $1 million to Slidell to enable the city to build a new state-of-the-art animal shelter and an accompanying dog park that will include “some form of tribute” to Harris and his cat of good fortune, said Patricia Jones, a spokeswoman for the organization.

Warlock

[LtSticks]

My lucky escape..

ok it was when I was about 11 I think, I was a bit of a speed freak with my bike, and decided to race it down the biggest hill in town...and went straight over the handlebars...and only had a few bruises. Was lying there tangled up in the bike and there was this guy walking his dog nearby, and he didnt even stop! Just went on his merry way...bah. I managed to walk home after about 10 minutes, the shock was kinda bad...

[potential_angel]

I've walked away from two things.

One was a few years ago while i still did horse riding and I had just learnt to make the horse gallop and one day we were just sort of making them walk around the grounds when my horse got to close to the horse in front and the horse in front kicked my horse. My horse tore off at a high speed and I was so shocked I let go of the reigns and fell to the ground. My back hit the ground really hard and hurt like hell so I rolled over onto my side, just as the horse stepped in the area I had just been in a few seconds before. Absolutely terrifying, I quit after that.

The other was a few months ago when i noticed that my computer wasnt working properly and I thought it might be the the plug socket so I opened up the plug case and rewired it(turns out this was the problem) except I didnt notice that one of the threads of copper wire was sticking out and touching another piece of wire. I then put the plug in the wall and it wasn't fitting properly so being the naive 15 yr old I am I slammed the plug into the socket and before I knew what was happening I was thrown across the room and I hit the back wall and was knocked unconsious. I was woken up a few hours later by my mum and the plug socket was completely black and so was the area around it. I was very lucky nothing had caught fire otherwise I would have died because no one was home.

Mel

[WebWarlock]

Another one.

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article ... yid=121227

Cat falls several stories and survives

A South Carolina kitty used up a few lives this week.

After more than a week in a tree, the cat is back on earth.

But it wasn't exactly the way Piper's owners hoped he would come down, but the good news is he is ok.

As of March 20, Piper the cat had been stuck in a tree for eight days when help arrived. But as the frisky feline's rescuer grew closer, Piper climbed higher.

It wasn't long before a tiny branch gave way and Piper plunged 80 feet. On the way down, the cat struck a branch of another tree, which may have broken his fall.

After a brief search, Piper's owner, Rodney Colvin, managed to pull the cat from his hiding place underneath a car. Colvin said Piper appeared to be fine, but he took him to the vet to make sure he hadn't broken a rib during his rapid descent.

Warlock

[urnofosiris]

I saw the video of that cat falling. Scary stuff, it is absolutely amazing that beastie was not hurt, it was a very long way down. It did not even look like it landed on it's feet, but rather that it landed on it's side. When it hit the other branch it started to spin around. I must be mistaken though, because I cannot imagine it not being injured if it landed any other way than on it's feet.

[oneyedchicklet]

This has been on the news constantly here. Considering its Friday, I think this fits this thread.

HUGS
Barb

Day 14: NYC Cat Finally Rescued From Wall
Fri Apr 14, 11:00 PM


NEW YORK - Molly the cat is finally free. After two weeks stuck behind a brick wall in a 19th century Greenwich Village building, workers rescued the bashful 11-month-old feline from her plight late Friday, according to Jean Tannenbaum, a spokeswoman for Animal Care & Control of New York City.

Representatives of Animal Care & Control, a private organization with a city contract to handle lost, injured and unwanted animals, have worked alongside a team of rescuers to drill and hammer out bricks in the cellar of the 157-year-old building to get Molly out.

They used special cameras, set out traps and even tried using kittens to appeal to the cat's maternal side. On Friday, a pet psychic showed up.

Molly usually spends her time at Myers of Keswick, a delicatessen housed in the building. Proprietor Peter Myers opened the store - which specializes in meat pies, clotted cream and other British food specialties - 20 years ago and kept Molly to catch mice.