A story from the Associated Press today, on a cat trapped in a burning building that was saved by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from a firefighter, points to something most of us don't think about:

Does your fire department have what it takes to save your pets?

I don't mean the determination or the training. I'm talking about the right gear:

Animal-sized oxygen masks.

People-sized masks don't properly fit dogs and cats. So firefighters must try to revive pets with "mouth-to-snout" breathing or by waving a regular oxygen mask under the animal's nose. Pet-sized masks, however, are the most effective way of delivering life-saving oxygen. And more departments are getting them, with one in three American households now having pets.

But they are expensive. So in some cases, local animal welfare groups or breed clubs have stepped up and donated the equipment.

Best Friends Pet Care, a Connecticut-based company, has started a matching grant program that has placed thousands of masks in fire stations around the country. There are no Best Friends franchises here in South Florida. But click here for their Web site and information about starting a fundraising drive for masks on your own.

Here's today's story on the "mouth-to-meow-th" rescue in Massachusetts.

And keep reading for a 2005 story I did on animal oxygen masks and how a Boynton Beach firefighter saved a dog with one.

Mouth to Meow-th: Mass. firefighter revives cat with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation By Associated Press 11:26 AM EDT, September 11, 2008 NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) _ A lucky cat owes one of its nine lives to a firefighter who revived it with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Al Machado rescued the cat from a burning apartment Tuesday, telling The Standard Times of New Bedford that he saw immediately that it needed air.

Machado began performing mouth to mouth on the animal as he carried it outside.

Video shot at the scene shows Machado bent over, breathing into the cat's mouth several times. The cat, a tiger angora, was revived and resting comfortably soon after.

No humans were injured in the fire. A man and woman whose last known address was the building that burned were arrested and charged with arson, authorities said.
Two other cats died in the second-floor apartment, but two dogs there were saved with the help of oxygen from paramedics and animal rescue personnel. Pets on the other two floors — including a ferret and even some frogs on the first floor — were all saved.

Asked what it tasted like to give mouth-to-mouth to a cat, Machado laughed, grimaced and said: "Like fur."

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