Scarlett The Fire Cat Stray Cat’s Devotion To Kittens She Carried One-By-One From Fire An Uplifting Story Of Motherly Love

Americans love their heroes and heroines.

Take Scarlett, for example, the incredible stray calico that touched America’s heart for weeks after saving her five tiny offspring from a devastating fire which swept through an abandoned garage in Brooklyn, N.Y., in March 1996.

Millions contracted Scarlett fever suddenly, and there seemed to be no cure. Daily media updates on the cat and her kittens helped, however.

While making five trips into the burning building to carry each kitten to safety, Scarlett risked life and limb. When it was all over, her eyes were blistered shut, her mouth, eyes and ears scorched, her paws burned and her coat badly singed.

“Scarlett Saves Her Family” by Jane Martin and J.C. Suares (Simon & Schuster, $20) will melt your heart whether you’re a cat lover or not. It’s not your basic fluffy feline volume. It focuses on deep-rooted values and internal benchmarks - i.e. a mother’s love.

Appropriately, the introduction is written by David Giannelli, the New York City firefighter who rescued Scarlett and her brood. A 19-year veteran, Giannelli is known as the “animal guy” for his love affair with animals, no matter what the species.

“Any animal is worth helping,” he emphasizes in the book. “You have to do what you can. I keep cans of food on the fire truck. I know animal first aid and after I rescue an injured dog or a cat, the first phone call I’ll make is to North Shore (Animal League in Port Washington, N.Y., where the Scarlett sextet was eventually transported).

“My wife, Kathy, says if I opened my house to every animal I help, we’d need a farm. And besides, I get heartbroken too easily. But luckily, a lot of people out there feel the same way I do.

“I’ve met a lot of people who ask me what was running through my mind when I picked Scarlett up off the ground. And I always tell them, I was just doing what I’d been trained to do. Because one thing’s for certain. You take it with you your whole life.”

Scarlett’s digs were in an international district noted for drugs, homeless of all ages and stray animals. The latter two often reside side-by-side in vacant buildings.

An intuitive street-smart mother-to-be, Scarlett remained inside rather than risk injury in the jaws of a free-roaming macho canine 10 times her size.

But when fire broke out the morning of March 29, Scarlett was forced to flee into the dreaded streets during a snowstorm.

Firefighters reached the site within two to three minutes but were under orders not to enter the old building, since a recent structure collapse nearby had taken the life of a firefighter.

Over the roar of the sirens, firefighters shouting, water being dowsed on the flames, Giannelli heard faint, high-pitched cries resembling meows. He soon followed the sounds to the side of the two-story brick building, where in front of him were three stray kittens hunkered against the wall, quivering and crying.

He called for a box, placed them inside and asked a bystander to “take it down the street” away from the fire scene. As the fire eventually died down, he heard that meowing sound again. Across the street he spotted two more kittens. It was, as Martin says, “as if they’d landed in a straight line.” But where was the mother?

Giannelli recognized the reason he found the kittens in this order was because she’d been carrying them away from the fire, one by one. Considering their condition, he could only speculate on their mother’s status. Did she even make it out alive?

After receiving a lead from a bystander, who’d seen a cat run to a vacant lot across the street beyond the line of the kitten drops, Giannelli found a couple of onlookers to help him search.

Knowing time wasn’t on their side, they rushed to the site and there she was behind a pile of rubble, a testimony to despair and hope. She wasn’t moving and was badly burned - but she was alive.

Giannelli puzzled what to do. Scarlett had already exhibited an incredible maternal instinct in saving her offspring, so he felt the psychological torment of needing to be reunited with her tiny quintet must approximate the physical pain she was experiencing.

He quickly brought the feline family together in the box and took them to the firehouse before calling a longtime North Shore Animal League contact, Marge Stein, public-relations director. Stein urged him to rush them over.

The savvy publicist knows a good story when she sees it. She quickly contacted a New York Post photographer and local Fox News Channel journalist. A media circus ensued. The next day there were five reporters. The day after, 25!

Martin’s densely packed narrative and Suares’ photos capture the energy within North Shore’s hospital - phones ringing incessantly, media everywhere and staffers’ intense around-the-clock efforts in saving the feline family.

Shortly after Giannelli arrived, box in hand, emergency personnel separated Scarlett from her offspring for treatment. The unknown with all the animals was lung damage and the potential for infection from extensive burns.

With Scarlett’s eyes swollen shut, it was uncertain if her corneas were damaged extensively. Would she be blind?

At the outset, each day became a major milestone, particularly for Scarlett. She was facing the biggest uphill battle. One good sign emerged immediately: The terribly thin cat devoured the first bowl of food offered.

At that point, Dr. Larry Cohen, who was treating her, said his “professional gut” told him this animal had a fighting chance to survive.

Giannelli couldn’t loosen his grips emotionally. He remained at North Shore for hours, checking on Scarlett and her litter, all of which had been placed in an oxygen chamber to assist their smoke-damaged lungs. This was to be their home for several days until it appeared all had turned the corner toward recovery.

Cohen emphasizes, “Scarlett may not have survived had she been taken somewhere else. I can honestly say that the care she was given here made all the difference - the dollars that we devoted to her, the way anything she needed, we could give.

“In certain places throughout the country, say a shelter or emergency clinic, Scarlett might have been assessed as too badly burned to survive. Sadly, they might not have had the resources to devote to her.”

But sagas like this often become emotional roller-coasters.

When things began appearing upbeat, the kittens were sent to a foster home for socialization and room to romp. All received names and appeared to be steadily improving. Suddenly, one wasn’t eating and began looking depressed. A trip to the veterinarian confirmed it was panleukopenia, also known as feline distemper virus. It eventually succumbed. But the crisis was far from over. Two others contracted it, too, but they were saved.

As they began to mature and their conditions improved, shelter administrators began planning for the cats’ eventual placement. Finding permanent homes for instant celebrities certainly wouldn’t be a problem. In fact, North Shore received more than 6,000 phone calls and letters worldwide, many from parties interested in adopting one or more in the group.

To monitor the animals’ health, it was decided to find homes nearby. Also, because the kittens had bonded closely in pairs, they would be placed together in two homes. Scarlett was placed in a third home.

Three months after the story broke, the media frenzy was resurrected, when the league conducted a press conference announcing who would be taking home Scarlett, Miagi, Runt, Smokey and Oreo.

All have recovered well. The former kittens are healthy, happy and well socialized in their new homes. Scarlett still receives a lubricating ointment in her eyes three times daily but suffers no discomfort.

It was an emotional day. Staffers were losing animals that had become near and dear to them. Conversely, smiling owners were awaiting the hand-over of celebrities they knew would quickly become cherished family members.

The author, Martin, who lives in Brooklyn with her 7-year-old German shepherd, Sophie, says, “I read about the story in the paper and immediately became interested. But it wasn’t until the time these animals were being adopted that I became more deeply involved.”

Considering she wasn’t there at the outset, Martin does a marvelous job capturing the heart of the fluid, yet tightly wound psychological landscape.

“North Shore officials offered us full access to everyone, including the three families who would adopt Scarlett and her offspring.

“I’d just grab the recorder, leave my loft in Brooklyn, get in my car and drive 30 miles to Port Washington, walk in with a list of people to talk to. It was so easy to get distracted with all the beautiful dogs and cats in there. There were so many that I just wished I could take home with me.”

A substantial share of the proceeds of the volume will go to the North Shore Animal League.

“There are certain things that happen in big cities that are pure, noble and rare,” says Martin. “This was one of them.

“I thought of this as a rags-to-riches New York story in many ways. Here’s this street cat that lived in an abandoned garage occupied by the homeless that ends up in a lovely townhouse. Add to that the moxie and integrity of the fireman.”

“It was easy to research but difficult to write. I wanted to maintain a narrative that gave the reader a feeling of being there.”

Asked how this story affected her, Martin replied, “I was incredibly exhilarated when I finished. After the last word, I closed up my computer, took Sophie and went for a four-mile run.”

Stein, the public-relations director, concludes, “This whole story changed so many people’s lives, and touched so many hearts. What it did for this animal shelter, and for thousands of other animals because of this, is invaluable. I really feel this was very providential.”

Adds Cohen, the veterinarian, “Scarlett had quite a characteristic look to her. I’m around animals all day long, and I am not a mush. I’m not one of these people who gets crazy over a particular animal and gets real mushy, but this cat had something about her … that was really special.

“She knew we were taking care of her; she knew where her kittens were; when you put her kittens near her she was very attentive; when you took them away, she knew. It’s like she was a small person who knew what the heck was going on.

“…I’m about as objective as the next guy. I mean, put me in a chair with a clicker and a football game and the dog next to me and I’m a happy guy. But I knew from the first day that I would never forget this cat.”

This spirited and captivating volume’s naturalness and compassionate realism produces an uplifting and positive message you won’t soon forget, either.