49-year-old Matthew Slater, a former British soldier, was rescued after jumping on the bed of his pet cat, Weller, and scratching his face to wake him up during a fire at their home in York City, England. He now considers her a hero.
“I remember trying to push her because I thought, ‘Why is she doing this? Slater recalled in an interview with the British newspaper Metro Yesterday “So I opened my eyes and I saw all the smoke and I thought, ‘Obviously she’s trying to wake me up. I believe 100% she saved my life, I would never wake up without her.'”
The fire broke out in the kitchen of the residence in the early hours of last Friday (29). Even though he inhaled a lot of smoke and lost consciousness several times, Matthew managed to call 911 while trying to exit the house through a first-floor window.
The fire brigade arrived on time, managed to break through the door and removed the former soldier, putting oxygen equipment on him. Momentarily losing consciousness from the smoke, he can’t remember telling the brigade members about his cat, Weller.
“I don’t remember doing that, but apparently I tried to go back. But they stopped me. So I was put in the ambulance and I was just worried about him,” says Matthews. He remained in the hospital for five hours and when he got the news from the police that his cat never left the house and died.
Heartbroken, the man returns to his home and finds that everything has been destroyed by the fire. While working as a builder, his home insurance expired two weeks ago and he thought of renewing it, but he did not do it on time.
Libby Bushby, a friend of a former soldier, has created a kitty on the GoFundMe website to help them by providing photos showing the destroyed rooms. Now the goal is to get 25 thousand pounds sterling, about 189 thousand dollars to buy new furniture and rebuild the property. So far 58,000 rupees have been deposited.
