A new children’s book uses a nearly century-old Norristown family account to introduce readers to a question that remains current: how will a household know when a fire starts? Bessie: The Cat Who Saved My Family, a 78-page paperback published Dec. 9, 2025, combines the story of a cat’s warning with practical guidance on emergency preparation, according to Faith News Service.
The book was adapted by Rob Robinson from an account told by his mother, Pearly Mae Wright Robinson. CBS News reported that Robinson was 6 when smoke from a neighboring house fire entered her family’s home while everyone was asleep in 1934. According to that family recollection, Bessie—a cat that had arrived several months earlier—meowed from room to room until the household woke up; the cat stayed only a few weeks after the fire before leaving, CBS News reported.
A story built around preparedness
The book’s safety material includes a fire checklist, advice on making an escape plan, instructions for calmly calling 9-1-1 and guidance intended to reduce carbon-monoxide exposure, according to the publisher’s description relayed by Faith News Service. That emphasis makes the book more than a family remembrance: its central anecdote is used to discuss the systems families should have in place before an emergency.
The historical setting matters. The National Institute of Standards and Technology says that almost no one had a home smoke alarm in the 1960s and that a single device could cost hundreds of dollars. That does not independently verify every detail of the Robinson family’s 1934 recollection, but it illustrates how different household fire-warning technology was during the period described.
Modern alarms remain central to survival
Today’s data points to the importance of a working alarm rather than an unusual substitute for one. The National Fire Protection Association found that 59 percent of U.S. home-fire deaths from 2018 through 2022 occurred in properties with no smoke alarms or alarms that failed to operate. When alarms failed, disconnected or nonworking power sources were the most common reason; battery problems were the leading specific factor, according to the NFPA.
Those figures are a modern national benchmark, not evidence about the Robinsons’ fire. They also cannot establish that a cat’s warning is a dependable fire-detection method. They do show why a story set in a home without a smoke alarm can still serve as an entry point for discussing alarm installation, maintenance and escape planning.
The local safety connection
Norristown’s fire-safety work provides a present-day counterpart to the book’s checklist. The Norristown Fire Department says a Sound the Alarm event conducted with the Red Cross reached 52 homes, installed 139 smoke alarms and provided fire-safety information to 174 residents, according to the department’s website.
The U.S. Fire Administration also advises households to practice evacuating animals and to plan how they will transport them during an emergency. That guidance places Bessie’s role in perspective: pets may alert people to danger, but households should plan for animals as part of an evacuation rather than depend on them to provide the warning.
Robinson’s account remains a family memory reported by CBS News, while the book is a later adaptation shaped by her son. The documented lesson that can be carried beyond that single story is straightforward: install smoke alarms, keep their power sources working, practice an escape plan and include pets in it.
