Boo the cat never meows – but he did when it counted most.

Back in 2018, Boo’s family was alerted to a problem in the house when he woke up everyone with his meowing. It was only then that the family realized they had a carbon monoxide leak. And that’s pretty strange since cats technically can’t detect the odorless, but potentially deadly, gas any better than humans.

All four family members from the Green Township home in Ohio had to be taken to the hospital while emergency crews tracked down the source of the leak.

In their 911 call, the family told the dispatcher that they had the home’s HVAC worked on the day before. The cause of the leak turned out to be a malfunctioning boiler feeding into the home’s baseboard system, according to Local 12 News.

The family might have kept sleeping and have never awoken if it weren’t for Boo’s caterwauling.

David Kecskes says they’re all lucky to be alive as a result. He watched Boo, then the rest of his family, faint before realizing he needed to get everyone out of the house.

“I woke up slowly and my wife had woken up at the same time and Ariana had woken up from her bedroom… and we just saw Boo fall and pass out right here. And then Ariana came out of her room, it’s her cat kind of, and she passed out right here.”

Ariana said that the fact that her cat was meowing was enough to get her out of bed and check with her parents to see what was going on.

“I woke up to my cat meowing. He never meows. He usually just squeaks or doesn’t meow at all. It’s actually kind of a joke in our family,” she said.

She recounted the family’s reactions to Local 12 News:

“My dad and my brother actually carried me out and that’s when I woke up again and then he got my brother out and then he grabbed a few things and got my mom on the front porch. She got my cat, Mr. Boo out,” she said. “Our other cat actually walked in and kind of revived him because he was knocked out and our other cat kind of sniffed him like, ‘Hey, get up.’ So, we were all just working together.”

That’s a lot of feline bravery for one household!

Fire investigators detected a potentially lethal level of carbon monoxide in the house, and the assistant Green Township fire chief told KTVU News, “had this situation gone on much longer the outcome could have been different.”

That makes Boo a hero to the Kecskes’.

“He passed out so many times trying to wake us all up and that’s just amazing because he’s never really meowed before. It’s like he’s been waiting his whole life to do this one heroic thing,” said Ariana.

There were no carbon monoxide detectors in the home, but the family planned to purchase some immediately. And everyone else should as well – there are hundreds of deaths each year in the U.S. due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Now, Boo is a hero to more than just his family. PETA also rewarded him with some well-deserved recognition.

In a press release on May 22, 2018, they announced:

“A Heroic Cat Award is on its way from PETA to the Kecskes family for their 7-year-old cat, Mr. Boo, who saved the entire family from carbon monoxide poisoning on May 15.”

It’s amazing to think that the cat understood that something was wrong to the extent that he would alert his whole family, especially since he wasn’t much of a meower.

“Mr. Boo knew that something was wrong, and he didn’t rest until he’d alerted his entire family to the danger they were in,” said PETA Vice President Colleen O’Brien.

They also pointed out that this story shows just how rewarding adopting an animal can be.

Be sure to scroll down below to see an interview with this very lucky family.

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Source: PETA, FOX2 KTVU News, FOX 19 News, Local 12 via YouTube