Dog Starts Fire, Kills Cats, and Then Angel Appears

This was an unforgettable highlight of my short career as a newspaper reporter. It was published in the April 5, 2000 issue of The Mechanicsville Local. Some irrelevant details have been omitted.

Dog Starts Fire, Kills Cats, and Then Angel Appears

After Cindy Pritts' three cats were killed in a house fire caused by her dog Dumpster, the smoky image of an angel appeared on the wall above the sofa where two of the cats died.

Her daughter, Carrie, a sophomore at Lee-Davis, spotted the angel first when a painting was removed from the wall and knew instantly it was the angel that had ferried the cats to heaven, she said.

The family examined the back of the picture and could find nothing that could have formed the image on the wall. Visitors and friends, including the family's pastor, all marveled at the likeness. The family has taken comfort from the sign after the devastation that happened March 22.

"It made us feel reassured," Mrs. Pritts said. She had left the house to pick her daughter up at choir practice. Both her husband and son were at work. To prevent Dumpster from getting into the trash while she was gone, she put the plastic trash can on top of the stove.

Firemen told her their best guess was the dog hit one of the burner knobs when he was jumping on the stove, trying to get at the trash. The burner melted the trash can and fire rapidly spread through the kitchen and adjacent family room.

Mrs. Pritts had left at 8:35 pm and Mr. Pritts came home from a meeting at 9:10. The doorknob was hot to his touch. When he opened the door, the smoke and a melted umbrella stand blocking the door prevented him from going inside. The kitchen and family room were destroyed and smoke damaged most of their belongings in other rooms.

Two of the cats never left the sofa under the picture where the angel image appeared. Fireman found them there, as if they were asleep. The third cat died after a fireman brought it out of the house. Mrs. Pritts said the fireman carrying the cat out was in tears.

Dumpster, the dog, managed to get to a doorway at the opposite end of the house and survive. Pritts thinks long-standing animosity between the dog and cats kept the cats from also moving to a less smoky part of the house.

It will take three months for their insurance company to rebuild the house. "I want to be mad at Dumpster, but he didn't know what he was doing," Mrs. Pritts said.