A cat named Crybaby returns a 'big' favor

Noreen Hyslop photo For the Deal family, their giant cat, Crybaby, is more than just a pet. The cat played a vital role in alarming the family of a fire that virtually destroyed their home in July.

Back in the winter of 2005, Mike Deal and his wife, Judy, resided between Dudley and Fisk with Mike's daughter, Savannah, and one cold night in early March they heard the high-pitched cries of an animal outside that sounded like it was in distress. Upon investigating outside, the then-eight-year-old Savannah found a tiny kitten, perhaps two weeks old, inside a discarded tire.

"It was partially submerged in icy water that had collected in the tire and it was so cold that its back legs were virtually frozen to its body," Deal recalls. "It was stretching it's neck just above the water and couldn't climb out of the tire."

"We brought it in the house and warmed the little thing up and dried him off and eventually tried to return it to the mother, even though he was alone when we found him."

The mother feline, though on the premises, elected not to have anything more to do with the baby and abandoned it once again. And so, the Deals returned the frail kitten to the warmth of their home, bottle-fed him and called him their own. Having heard its cries in the night, they appropriately called the kitten, "Crybaby."

"He grew into a big, fat cat and is just a big pet," Deal says.

To say that Crybaby is a big cat is an understatement. He tilts the scales at a whopping 30 pounds, but every ounce of him has always been loved in the Deal household. And although the cat has always played an important part in the family's lives, the Deals had no idea just how important a role he would eventually play.

The Deals moved from the Dudley area some time ago, purchasing a trailer on Condor Drive in Dexter, where they lived for several months, until recently when they bought a home southwest of town. They were in the process of moving in, but still had several items in the trailer and were still residing there early last month when disaster struck.

"We had all worked till really late in the new house," Deal recalls, "and had not laid down to sleep until about four in the morning."

It was just over an hour later on that morning of July 6, when Deal awoke to the cries once again of the now giant feline, Crybaby.

"He was nudging up against me whining really loudly and I was just dead asleep from working nearly all night, but he finally got my attention."

What immediately also got Deals' attention, once awake, was the smell of smoke. Smoke was filling the trailer and flames were quickly engulfing the home. The family of three grabbed Crybaby and little else, and made their way to safety. Dexter firefighters responded to Deal's call for help, but little remained of the home after they extinguished the fire in the early morning hours that Sunday.

"There were smoke alarms in the trailer," Deal explains, "but they had not gone off."

Instead, the Deals' own personal alarm, in the form of one giant black and white cat named Crybaby, warned the sleeping family, and for his heroics, the full-figured feline has earned a special place, not only in the home of the Mike Deal family, but in their hearts as well.