Tommy the yellow tabby cat has a “home for life” after waking his owner when a nylon jacket fell onto a room heater and started melting.
“Anything could have happened if he hadn’t woken me up,” Avrell Nuanez said.
During the night, Tommy crawled into bed with Nuanez and started swatting her head with his paw.
Nuanez says she repeatedly told the cat to stop, and she rolled over several times trying to ignore him. Tommy was persistent, though, and continued batting at her eyes and head until Nuanez got out of bed.
When she did, Nuanez says she saw what Tommy was trying to warn her about.
Earlier in the day, Nuanez had spent some time cleaning her apartment in her apartment at the Macks Creek Senior Center. She had placed a nylon jacket and several old papers on a box at the side of her bed.
During the night, Nuanez figures it was likely Tommy who knocked the items on the heater, but he absolved himself from any blame when he woke her up.
The jacket was badly damaged and was thrown away, but other than that, there was no damage.
Tommy the hero
The best Avrell Nuanez can guess, Tommy is about 1 year old. He was a stray before coming to live with Nuanez.
Nuanez and the other residents at the Macks Creek Senior Center had been feeding him and several other stray cats when the landlord told them to stop.
Nuanez says she asked to adopt Tommy and was granted permission, on one condition - Tommy had to be vaccinated.
It was a bargain. From then on, Tommy was home.
“He found me,” she said. “He’s a loving cat, very friendly.”
Nuanez says the other residents at the senior center helped name Tommy.
Lake Sun Leader
