Schnautzie Saves the Day Facing a Gas Leak, She Thought Fast
Besides a fire, a gas leak is one of the worst things that can happen in the middle of the night. Fortunately for one Montana couple in 2007, Schnautzie the cat was on the case. She woke up her owners to alert them to the danger, preventing a deadly — and explosive — tragedy. People magazine reported that Greg and Trudy Guy adopted Schnautzie from a local pet store in April 2007. They’d gone with hopes of adopting a puppy but instead fell in love with a tiny black kitten. The couple only intended to foster Schnautzie, but she proved herself a hero and became a permanent family member. That October, Schnautzie climbed up on Trudy’s chest at 2 a.m. and started pawing at her nose. Since cats sometimes do strange (and annoying) things, Trudy didn’t think too much of it — until Schnautzie kept at it. Now, Schnautzie had her attention, especially when Trudy noticed her persistently sniffing the air around her. Once fully awake, Trudy noticed a hissing sound somewhere in the house. Getting up to investigate, she found a broken pipe outside her bathroom, pumping gas into the basement. “The gas was just fuming,” Trudy remembered. “Our house was saturated in a short time.”
The Guys quickly vacated the house with Schnautzie in tow and called the fire department. Only upon the rescue
workers’ arrival did the Guys realize the extent of the danger they had faced. While the gas alone could have killed them, it was also an unseasonably frigid night in October. Had the heater or water tank turned on, it would have ignited the fumes and caused an explosion.
Schnautzie was a hero to the Guys, but extra treats and a permanent home were thanks enough for her. Still, she received a bit more than that in 2010. The Great Falls Animal Foundation learned how Schnautzie had saved the day and decided to honor her with the Purple Paw Award. While Schnautzie appreciated the thought, Greg said she didn’t enjoy the reception. “She’s shy around strangers,” he explained. But there’s no doubt that Schnautzie deserved her award. Sally Cerny of the animal foundation told Catster.com that the Purple Paw is given to pets who uniquely demonstrate the bond between animals and humans. And, she concluded, “There’s no more special way to show that than to save your family.”
Add Organization to Your Spring-Cleaning List! 4 TIPS TO KEEP YOUR HOUSE TIDY
It’s March — the month of spring-cleaning! While many often think of scrubbing the windows or washing the floors, spring is the perfect time to reorganize your house into a more efficient space.
plastic bags there. Then with the container’s built-in feeding lid, you’ll be able to pull the bags out one by one as you need them.
Label messy cords with tape. As working from home and numerous consumer electronics (shut up, Alexa!) become more prevalent in our lives, the cords connecting these devices can become tangled and hard to differentiate. By wrapping a
And no, you don’t need fancy storage furniture or shiny color-coded bins to get your home in order. There are many small things you can do just by
using clever tricks and throwaway household items. So, try these organization hacks to tidy your home this month and beyond. Keep your matching bed sets together by using a pillowcase to store them. Organize your linen closet by slipping the flat and fitted sheets into one of their respective matching pillowcases (fold the other pillowcase in there as well!). This way, you’ll never have to hunt for the matching sheets again! Use an old disinfecting wipes container to store your plastic bags. If you like to reuse plastic shopping bags at home, finding a way to store them can be a pain. Next time you run out of Clorox Wipes (or another generic equivalent), rinse the inside of the container with water and store your
piece of painter’s or washi tape around a cord, you can create a tag to write what that cord is attached to. So, no more guessing which cords you’re unplugging! Add some chalkboard paint to your jars. Sometimes, we have no idea what’s inside the jars in our pantry. Maybe it’s flour, or maybe it’s powdered sugar. Sometimes, it can be neither! To solve this, you can buy a little jar of chalkboard paint at your nearest craft store and paint squares on your jars (or other unlabeled containers around the house) to write with chalk what’s inside! The best part is you can erase these labels and change them based on the jar’s contents.
These hacks will help you give your spring cleaning a major boost by keeping your home neat and tidy for the rest of the year!
2 • www.garryliday.com
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