FIRE CREW HAS WARM FEELING FOR CAT.Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writer She's four-legged, black and white, and lives at the Gorman fire station. She's even gone along on a fire call or two. If you guessed a Dalmatian, you're purrrrfectly wrong. This fire station pet chases mice, not cats. In fact, she is a cat, a short-hair that answers to the name Firecat. ``She sleeps out in the barn on the fire engine,'' Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County fire Capt. James Bettencourt said Monday. ``When the alarm sounds, she gets off.'' Firecat lived on a farm that borders the county's most remote fire station, tucked away in the middle of nowhere along Interstate 5, just south of the Kern County line. Eventually, she moved to the firehouse in search of company and some TLC TLC total lung capacity; thin-layer chromatography. TLC abbr. 1. thin-layer chromatography 2. . Firefighters feed her out of their own house fund, ``the same thing we use to buy ketchup and mustard,'' Engineer Dennis Hillier said. ``This cat earns her keep,'' Hillier said. ``We get a lot of field mice This article is about the fictional creatures from Oz. For types of real-life rodents, see field mouse. For the band, see The Field Mice. The Field Mice are fictional intelligent creatures — field mice — that live just outside the Emerald City of the up here, and she's a great mouse catcher.'' Firecat's canine counterparts were the topic of discussion Monday at a meeting of the county Board of Supervisors The examples and perspective in this article or section may represent an unduly geographically limited view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. The Board of Supervisors is the body governing counties in the U.S. in downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or , a far piece from the silos and snow-capped Snow´-capped` a. 1. Having the top capped or covered with snow; as, snow-capped mountains s>. Adj. 1. peaks of Gorman. It seems dogs - even Dalmatians - are prohibited from county fire stations, something county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich Michael Dennis Antonovich (born 1939 in Los Angeles, California) is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors representing the Fifth District, which covers northern Los Angeles County, the Antelope, Santa Clarita, Pasadena, and parts of the San Fernando and San wanted to change. Cats aren't mentioned in Fire Department policy. But nevertheless, Firecat has the fat cats on a technicality - she doesn't sleep in the station. She's quite happy snoozing in the barn-turned-garage that houses Station 77's engine. Well, most of the time. ``She's not supposed to come in the station, but sometimes she sneaks in,'' Hillier explained. ``We have some firefighters who are allergic to cats so we try to keep her out,'' the captain added. Firecat's been at the station about five years. Even as a tiny kitten she slept on the engine, in those days she hadn't figured out the system and mistakenly went on a few calls. ``When she was young, she wasn't smart enough to get off the truck,'' Hillier said. ``One time, I was at this small grass fire on the I-5 and the next thing I know, she's doing figure 8s around my two feet. She did not want to be there.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (Color) Los Angeles County Fire Department Not to be confused with Los Angeles Fire Department. The Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD), serves unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County, as well as 58 cities and towns that choose to have the county provide fire and EMS services, including the City of La Capt. James Bettencourt says Firecat has lived at the Gorman station for about five years. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News |
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