My Cat Almost Set My House on Fire

We pull up to our house and all we see is a gargantuan firetruck, taking up the whole width of the street, parked in front of our house. There are blue and red flashing lights, a few smaller fire vehicles, police. We are confused to say the very least. But let's rewind a little.

I have a cat named Razsa (pronounced "Raja," a word that means king in India and parts of South East Asia). My family got him when he was just a kitten, when I was eight years old. He is now 17. He has been with my family through so much. He is one of the greatest creatures I have ever known and he truly sees himself as the king of the household. He has always been a bit strange and goofy, and now he has turned into quite an old man, but of course we love him just the same.

So lately, old man Razsa hasn't been cleaning himself as well as he used to. A few weeks ago, my mom and I decided to give him a bath, which went fine. Later that evening, I went to New York City with my brother and my friends to see a really cool musical. The drive is about two hours long, so once the show is over, we are excited to get this journey over with and go hang out and relax at our house. Little did we know what was to come.

Flash forward to the firetruck and flashing lights scene. My brother (who was driving) and I are freaking out at this point. My heart was beating out of my chest. I was worried something had happened to the house, or worse yet, my mom. Not to mention our friends who are very confused as well. We park the car in the street and ask these three gentlemen who are sitting in the back of their fire vehicle (looking like they are just hanging out and tailgating) what is going on. They reply, "They're just checking it out." WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? If anything, that made me freak out more.

I look around and finally I spot my mom. She explains to us that after returning home that night, her and her boyfriend started to smell burning plastic and our living room was starting to fill up with smoke. They could not find the source of it and they were getting nervous so they called the fire department. The firemen showed up in full force. They looked all over our house and found out that King Razsa had peed on a lamp cord that had some sort of electrical box on it. This caused the lamp to short circuit and the cord began to burn up. WOOOOW. We were all relieved but also dumbfounded at this story. We got rid of the lamp, cleaned up the floor, and all was okay. My mom's theory is that Razsa didn't enjoy the bath we gave him earlier that day, so peeing on the floor was his sinister revenge. Whatever it was, I'm just glad the outcome was not more serious.

This is how you know Razsa has truly become an integral part of our family. He was able to get us to call the damn fire department! Despite this story and some of his nastier habits, we will still love him always. Long live King Razsa!