[Gpdd] [MISC] Furry Fire Alarms

[DL1Bossfan at aol.com]

Hi Everyone!
My house is small, so we celebrate a lot of special occasions at my  sister's 
house (including Mother's Day).  This Mother's Day was no  different.  I 
agreed to make german potato salad and desserts.   Saturday night I made a 
cheesecake to take.  The crust was made by  combining ground graham crackers, 
cinamon, and melted butter which  was then pressed into a springform pan.  The 
filling was poured over  it and into the oven it went.  I proceeded to get on the 
computer and catch  up on e-mails.  About 40 minutes passed.  All of a sudden, I 
heard Tom  in the other room making unusual high pitched sounds and 
scratching.  Well,  Huck has been frisky lately, so at first I thought Tom was just 
fussing  with him.  I waited a minute or 2, then decided to see what all the fuss 
 was about.  When I turned the corner I saw.  Smoke was pouring out of  the 
oven!  Quickly, I grabbed the extinguisher and unplugged the  stove.  I then 
called the non-emergency fire dept. number - thinking that  they would be able 
to tell me what to do.  I didn't know if I should throw  some baking soda on it 
or what.  They wanted to send a truck out, but I  decided to watch it for a 
while.  After it cooled, I was able to clean the  bottom out - it seems that 
the springform pan was not latched as tight as it  should have been, and the 
butter from the crust dripped to the bottom of the  oven.  I was seconds away 
from having a grease fire!  That has never  happened before.  Yes, I have an 
alarm (with batteries that were changed in  April), but the smoke had not reached 
it yet.  My sweet little Tom and Huck  had alerted me, and probably saved me 
from a lot of heartache  and problems.  For that they got a big piece of 
parsley and hugs from  their "mom" (who had a great "Mother's Day" because of them!).
Donna and her furry heroes - Tom and Huck