Duchess
Domestic Short Hair Cat
Inducted January 2001
Owned by Jason Wooten
Nominated by Dr. Ron Sanders
Superstition and old witch tales have always given cats an evil demeanor. But when a cat saves the lives of its owners, it more than makes up for this bad reputation.
On Nov. 16, 1999, Duchess, a 6-year-old female cat, alerted her family to a fire that destroyed their home in Venus home, a Johnson County town. At 1:30 a.m., Jason Wooten and his wife awoke to the sound of Duchess pawing at their door.
“She was practically banging down the door,” Wooten said.
Wooten said when he opened the door he could see smoke forming at the other end of his mobile home and could feel the temperature rising. He immediately evacuated everyone from the home and called the fire department.
“The smoke alarm went off about one or two minutes after Duchess,” Wooten said.
When the fire department arrived they informed Wooten that it was critical that Duchess had gotten them out as soon as she did.
“They said an old trailer like that goes up pretty quickly,” Wooten said. “And every second counts.”
Wooten said he became Duchess’s owner when she was found by his wife’s employer. They went to look at Duchess and decided to take her home.
The Wootens have owned Duchess for two years, and said her behavior that night was very out of character. He described Duchess as typically calm.
Dr. Ron Sanders of the Park Row Animal Hospital in Arlington nominated Duchess for the hall of fame. Duchess has been a patient for two years.
“Obviously she has been a good pet for them,” said Dr. Sanders.
Dr. Sanders said one of the explanations for Duchess’s reaction was the human-animal bond.
“Animals look to us for safety, comfort and food,” said Dr. Sanders.
“Companionship” is the one word Wooten used to describe the bond between himself and Duchess. “That’s the main part."
