Cat adopted during pandemic alerts family to deadly gas leak

A new feline member of an Oregon family may have saved her owners from a dangerous gas leak.

Lilly, a special-needs cat that Sandi and Mike Martin recently adopted, began sniffing at the Martins’ fireplace key valve one day. Sandi went to see what Lilly was doing, as this was a new action for Lilly. Sandi smelled gas. After her husband, Mike, also smelled the gas, he called their gas company, which told them to open the doors and windows in the room and leave it until they could come to check the gas lines to the home.

A gas company technician quickly showed up. The technician found a slow gas leak and shut off all the house’s gas connections. If the gas leak had kept going, it could have potentially caused an explosion or fire.

Here’s local news channel KGW News’ report on Lilly’s heroic nose.

Sandi Martin, who is a board member with the rescue organization Cat Adoption Team, had adopted Lilly from them after first fostering her. The Martins have also fostered other CAT felines in the past.

Lilly helped cheer Sandi up after she was feeling down from not being able to visit family and friends during the pandemic, according to the KGW News story.

The CAT Facebook page shared a photo of Lilly and her story recently, as seen below.

Other unique things about Lilly: She has 21 toes instead of the 18 a cat usually has. She also has feline leukemia virus (FeLV), which may shorten her lifespan.

However, Lilly’s feline-smelling powers are working just fine. Cats have between 50-200 million smell sensors in their noses compared to 5 million in humans.

Other recently adopted pets that helped their new families include a cat that alerted his family to a slow cooker fire and a dog who helped her owner after he suffered a stroke.

Heroes at home! Another great reason to rescue a shelter animal.