Cat in The Ashley - Oh-Oh

[Retired_Ted]

New member here, about ready to have a Harman Accentra installed. Hopefully, it won't be the same experience I had a few years (actually about 25) back. Came home from teaching chemistry all day and the house had a bit of a chill - it was October or November, if I remember correctly. My 2 foot long Ashley ( a ducted monster in the basement) needed to be started - opened both doors - fuel door and the lower ash door - went to cut some kindling. In the mean time, my, then, 8 year old black Persian kitty decides to hop into the stove (remember, he's black). I come in, insert an arm-load of kindling into the front of the 2 foot long firebox - shut the door- stuff some paper into the lower ash container - light it - and the fire builds. After perhaps 30 seconds or so, the 350 pound stove begins to rock back and forth. I find this amusing and a bit disconcerting and figure (I went to college) that there must be something in there! After a minute or so, it stopped, I opened the door to have a peek and two eyes stare back at me from the back part of the 2 foot firebox - it's that damn cat! He jumps out of the firebox smoking - ears a bit shorter and with all 4 paws badly burned and flops on the floor. Vet says - bring him in and if he makes it through the night - he'll live. He lived to be 18 years old.

 

[suematteva]

How did the Mrs. react to feline fuel? Were you dodging Flying cordwood or frying pans? or Maybe the pooch did it? Told the cat a mouse ran in there?

 

[Retired_Ted]

How did the Mrs. react to feline fuel? Were you dodging Flying cordwood or frying pans? or Maybe the pooch did it? Told the cat a mouse ran in there?

Yes - there is more to the story - didn't want to make the first post too long - but, since you asked - my 2 sons were ages 5 and 8 at the time. My wife was making supper and heard me scream as the flaming, smoking, well-trimmed cat exited the stove. My oldest boy ran down the stairs as I muttered, I'm gonna have to shoot this cat, and my son threatened suicide with the fork he held in his hand. That's when we decided to call the vet. After an infusion of steroids, the cat lived to a ripe old age. All's well that ends well- they say.

 

[Rhone]

Hmm... look anything like this but without the smoking cat? This is a picture I took of my Hearthstone Clydesdale just before it was finished being installed. It's missing the surround feet in this picture, and not levelled yet but looky thar! My cat could not resist checking for mice in there and jumped in. She's jumped on it once while it was burning but, that's about as much trouble as she's gotten into. Deceiving how small it looks without the full grown cat in there.

 

[BrotherBart]

I keep putting food in the back of the fire box, but her cat just won't fall for it. Of course on cold days when he comes down to lay in front of the stove in my office I know that the insert is cooling down upstairs.

 

[Geoff]

Entertaining!
Last winter I installed an old pre-EPA stove to get me through the winter until I could get a newer one. The stove came from my parent's house and they had stored it in their barn for about 20 years after taking it out of a house they had bought and turned into apartments (the stove was only a few years old at the time). I did some work on it and what did I find inside? A whole bunch of petrified cat dung. I seem to have a memory of a cat climbing in and out of there a long time ago.

I guess wood stoves make good litter boxes.
Hmm... this gives me an idea that could help cut down on the pellet shortage.

 

[skypager]

Had a customer who called and was complaining about and odor from his pellet stove which was installed in the basement. Our tech went out and found that the guy never closed the hopper lid and his many cats had an appreciation for a nice warm litter box. He couldn't seem to understand why this would be a problem and why we wouldn't clean it.

 

[brian_in_idaho]

Man, both the cooked cat and litter box story are nasty. I've never had those issues with the stove! The worst our cat has been through is with the dryer. Seems like they like that nice warm pile of cloths. My wife said the dryer was making all kinds of nasty noises for a while, when she opened it the cat came out, pretty limp and worn out, but she came through it allright.

Bri

 

[daninohio]

My best (worst) cat story was from our greenhouse growing up . . . we had large commercial glass greenhouses and the vents (manually operated) were about 40' high along the ridgeline. We had a couple cats that were pets and mousers. The one night I was closing the vents and heard this screeching from up above -- I looked all around before looking up and seeing that the cat had climbed to the top of the greenhouse and gotten its head stuck in the vent as I was closing it. A few turns the other way and the cat pulled out its head and was none the worse for the experience.