FORT MITCHELL - Maybe she was down to only six lives. Maybe she spotted a cat burglar. Who knows? The littlest tenant in Apartment 194 can't say why she dialed 911. She can only mew.
When the police officer knocked on the door, Kathy Seta had to put down the dinner plate she was washing and dry her hands.
''Everything OK?'' Capt. Mary Allen asked.
''Yeah,'' Ms. Seta said. ''Why?''
''We got a 911 call from your phone.''
''I didn't dial 911,'' Ms. Seta said.
They found Kitty Blossom in the bedroom with the phone off the hook.
'Hate to see phone bill'
The call came at 7:43 p.m. April 7, Ms. Allen says. The police dispatcher heard nothing on the other end.
Ms. Seta seemed surprised to see an officer at her door, Ms. Allen says.
Her cat's never dialed 911 before, Ms. Seta says. ''No telling what other numbers she's made on my phone. I hate to see the phone bill when it comes in.''
Any long-distance calls to Kat? Or Katmandu? Catalina or Catalonia? Catania or Catanzaro?
Understand: Ms. Seta isn't getting her back up. She loves Kitty Blossom. She thinks this is funny. But it has her thrown. Ms. Seta, 38, has been surrounded by animals all her life.
''I'm just a plain ol' country girl,'' she says.
She grew up on a farm in Leslie County, Ky. But none of the cows ever got on the horn. None of the pigs made a single prank calls to Pernell's Old Folks' Sausage.
Since she moved to Northern Kentucky 10 years ago to look for work, Ms. Seta has had an endless parade of pets through her apartment, including a diabetic cat named J.E. (''He just looked like a J.E.,'' she says.)
Not one has reached out and touched someone.
What kind of emergency could a kitten have?
''I don't know,'' says Ms. Seta, a registered nurse at St. Elizabeth Medical Center North, in Covington. ''You'll have to ask her.''
Kitten full of tricks
Kitty Blossom isn't saying, of course. She's busy: first, giving herself a bath; then, trying to gain entry to the garbage can.
''She's a little baby doll,'' says Ms. Seta. She's trouble, too, the color of a rattlesnake. Her eyes are green. Her ears are big and pointy.
Ms. Seta met Kitty Blossom three months ago at a pet store in Highland Heights. The kitten was in a cage. Ms. Seta felt sorry for her. She bought her on the spot.
The kitten has been full of tricks since moving in with Ms. Seta. She climbs up on top of the refrigerator, pulls all the toilet paper off the roll, knocks the phone off the hook and plays the answering machine.
On her way out that night, the police officer gave Ms. Seta advice:
''Whenever you really need a 911 phone call, get Kitty Blossom to dial it for you.''
Rob Kaiser is The Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. His column appears regularly on Sundays and Thursdays in The Kentucky Enquirer. He can be reached at 578-5584.
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