NEAR FATALITY
In march of this year, I awoke with a terrible stomach and head ache–I forced myself to get up and eat and take a couple aspirins. Those didn’t help much. My grandson, Mick , came by to leave something and said something wasn’t right. So I called my daughter to come by and see if she could detect something–no real odor but everytime she went from the front room to the dining room she would get a sharp headache.
Looking back I had been having stomach aches off and on for the last few months. My kitty had been vomiting a couple times a week for a month or more.
I called the owner of my place and she came right over and also called Xcel who came out immediately and found the crawl space was high in carbon monoxide –red-tagged and shut off the furnace. He assured me it was ok to spend the night.
The next morning I still felt ill and heard my cat screaming in pain and I found him under the bed near death. He did die a few hours later and I spent 5 hours in the ER. The doctor said I couldn’t return until the furnace was repaired or replaced and a carbon monoxide monitor was installed.
All rentals are required to have a monitor here in Colorado–so if you are renting make sure one is provided by the owner/landlord.
Sad as I was loosing my kitty–he was really my “canary in the mine” and saved my life.
Tags: canary in the mine, carbon monoxide, carbon monoxide monitor, Colorado law, kitty
