A house fire in the predawn hours Sunday at 1128 Penelope St. proved too much for the 3-month-old calico kitten.

But before she disappeared into eternity, she saved the lives of the human occupants sleeping there.

Cassandra Coates said Patchy awakened her sometime after 4:30 a.m. by screaming in her ear and batting at her face.

“I mumbled, ‘What is wrong with her?’” Ms. Coates said. “I thought she was hungry. So I got up and went to the kitchen to put some food down for her, but she just ran in circles screaming.”

Ms. Coates said she knew Patchy was too young to be in season but the kitten’s behavior was bizarre. Then Patchy ran toward the front of the house. Ms. Coates followed. Just then the lights flickered - then went out.

“It was totally dark, but I could see the front porch totally engulfed in flames,” she said.

Ms. Coates ran to wake her fiancé, Daniel Smith.

Smith said he is a sound sleeper and would have burned to death if someone hadn’t awakened him.

“Patchy saved everyone in the house,” he said.

Smith ran to a door that opens into the front hallway and could see flames had already entered the structure so he slammed it closed, he said

Smith then went to wake his father, Leon V. Smith.

“I screamed, ‘Dad, the house is on fire - we’ve got to get out,’” Smith said.

He said he and Ms. Coates lived with and cared for his dad since he suffered a stroke in 2007.

“He wanted me to help him grab up family pictures and I told him to forget it,” Smith said.

Ms. Coates managed to get two Chihuahuas - a black and a tan - into kennels and out the back door, then went back to find Patchy.

“The last time I saw her she was in the living room,” she said. “I called to her and tried to coax her to come to me, but the fire burst into the living area and I had to run for my life. I had only seconds.”

She said that with the lights out it was dark and terrifying. The last thing Ms. Coates did was leave the back door open for Patchy.

“But I don’t think she made it out,” she said. “Patchy was an indoor cat. She had never been outside and it wouldn’t be in her nature to run out of the house.”

Smith said they ran out into the back yard where he realized they were trapped by a wood privacy fence. Ms. Coates had grabbed the cell phone on the way out. He called 911.

Then they made it around to a side gate and got away from the house, he said.

He said his father managed to make it to the front gate where he moved his car, which by now was blazing hot.

“My German shepherd was chained to a tree in front of the house and I thought he was probably dead,” Smith said. “The heat was incredible. When the firemen arrived I asked them to check on him and they did. He was hiding under my car and OK.”

Capt. Chris Morgan said he got the alarm from the call center at 5 a.m. When they arrived at the scene the house was fully involved, he said.

“You could see the fire from both stations - downtown and Sparta Road - it was so bright,” Morgan said.

Morgan said that apparently the roof had huge holes in it from lack of maintenance.

“With the roof ventilated the fire spread quickly,” Morgan said. “There isn’t much you can do to save the structure at that point. We poured water onto it and onto the neighboring homes and a car in the back drive to keep it from igniting.”

Morgan said an engine truck, a ladder truck, two ambulances and a rescue truck arrived with eight firefighters. By 6 a.m. the fire was under control. Another shift came on at 8 a.m. to monitor the scene.

Smith and Ms. Coates have returned to the scene numerous times looking for Patchy and calling for her, hoping she got out and is hiding somewhere.

“I don’t think she made it though,” Smith said. “The firemen told us she was likely overcome by smoke and fumes, passed out and would not have been aware of burning up.”

Smith said his father and the shepherd have since gone to stay with his younger brother in Nolanville.

The American Red Cross provided shelter for Smith and his fiancée at a local motel.

“We are looking at rental units now,” he said.

Ms. Coates, Smith, his mother, Freda Thorp, and his twin sisters, Carol Ballesteros and Cheryl Louw, were all at the site Tuesday reclaiming family photos in the rubble. Ms. Ballesteros said she once researched the history of the house.

“It was built in the 1890s by S.M. Ray Sr. for his son as a wedding gift,” she said. “She said her family has owned the property since 1973.

Smith said Eric Miller, manager of the Pizza Hut in Belton, where Smith works, has set up an emergency fund.

Cheryl Blanks, a pet caregiver at the Temple Animal Shelter, said she remembers Patchy well.

“She had a face that was black on the right side and tan on the left,” Ms. Blanks said. “I called her Phantom of the Opera.”

Ms. Blanks said Patchy was a little shy at first, but was very friendly when she got to know you.

“What a brave little kitty,” she said. “She is a true hero.”