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‘Baby’ the cat saves couple from house fire

A couple from Illinois found the 13-year-old house cat who alerted them Monday morning to a house fire that began as they slept. The cat went missing after the fire.
/ Source: The Associated Press

A couple in the northwestern Chicago suburb of Wonder Lake found their 13-year-old house cat who went missing after saving their lives during a house fire. Josh Ornberg and Letitia Kovalovsky said their cat, "Baby," woke them early Monday morning as they slept on a couch in the living room. Ornberg said the house was starting to fill with smoke from a fire in the bedroom.

Ornberg called 911 after he could not put out the fire with a home extinguisher.

The couple, who are expecting twins in about two months, got out of the house safely, as did "Baby" and their dog, but "Baby" disappeared a short time later.

"We'd bought the cribs, clothes, the changing table," Ornberg told the Chicago Tribune of preparations for the twins' arrival. "This weekend, I was going to buy one of those Disney ceiling fans. Now there's nothing left."

Ornberg set a live trap for the gray, white and brown tabby, who he said is strictly an indoor cat. His employers saw the cat in the trap and kept Baby with them in their car until they could meet with Ornberg to return her.

"I thought she would come back," said Ornberg, who told the Chicago Tribune that he was happy when he got the call that Baby was found.