WIARTON, ONTARIO
MORINVILLE, ALBERTA
Mel-O joined the Rose family in July 2005. On a family trip to the Edmonton Humane Society, Danielle and Sean Rose were looking to help their daughter Kianna and son Alex pick out a pet. Kianna quickly picked out her kitten, and Alex went back to the ?cat room? to make his selection. In one of the cages Alex found four kittens all meowing except for one ? Mel-O. She just lay there as quiet as can be and Alex chose her immediately. So off the Rose family went from the Humane Society, arriving home with two new members of their family. Mel-O, always quiet and mellow ? hence the name Alex picked for her!
Mel-O had a bit of a rough start in her new adopted home. Soon after settling in, she developed a respiratory virus that resulted in many trips to the veterinarian. Nine-year-old Alex, who has Type 1 diabetes, worried for his new furry companion but also understood all too well trips to the doctor’s office and medication. Fortunately, for so many many reasons, Mel-O recovered fully.
At 10:30 p.m. on March 27th 2006, Danielle had already tucked her kids into bed. Alex completed his final glucose check for the evening, and his sugar levels were fine. Danielle and her husband Sean had just gone to sleep, when Danielle heard Alex get up. She asked him what he was doing, thinking he was just stalling about going to sleep, but he said Mel-O had woken him up ? she had walked over his chest and belly and started to swat his face with her paws. Understanding full well that being woken by your cat isn’t abnormal in itself, what was strange was that Mel-O doesn’t like to walk on people. Also, Alex sleeps about 5 feet off of the ground in a loft bed and Mel-O climbed up the ladder to reach him ? something she had never done before. Alex decided that he would go check his sugars since Melzy (as the Rose family affectionately calls her) was so insistent that he get up. Mel-O followed Alex and Danielle downstairs as they went to check Alex’s sugar levels. Even though Alex said he didn’t feel as if they were low, to Danielle’s amazement his sugars were in fact dangerously low. The family soon realized they may have only had a matter of minutes before Alex would have started to have a seizure.
While they can’t say for certain what Mel-O sensed that night or what caused her unusual behavior, the family believes Alex owes her his life. Alex rescued Mel-O from the humane society, providing her with a new home when she needed one, and Mel-O returned the favour, rescuing her loyal companion right back.
