MONROE — From hours of footage of cats being goofy to soldiers returning home, YouTube is no stranger to videos that pull at the heartstrings. 

When Suzann Holland of Monroe came across one of such videos of a kitten being resuscitated following a fire, her interest was immediately piqued.

“It just really was cool that they had this little mask that would fit a cat,” she said.

A pet lover herself, Holland was moved to see if the Monroe Fire Department had any pet oxygen masks.

She reached out to fire chief Dan Smits and, upon finding out that the department did not have any oxygen masks specifically for animals, decided to make them a reality for the department.

“We have low-flow masks for adults or pediatrics, but … the oxygen is not nearly as efficient,” Smits said. When using a human mask for an animal, the snout is not able to be fully covered in the same way it would be by an animal-specific mask.

On July 6, Holland presented Smits with the masks at the Monroe Common Council meeting.

Through research and collaboration with Smits, Holland decided on getting Wag’N O2 Fur Life pet oxygen mask kits, each containing three different sized masks that can be used for pets as small as mice or as large as cows. 

Each kit includes three oxygen masks (one small, one medium and one large), three oxygen air tubes, a laminated instruction sheet, a leash and an instructional DVD on use.

“It’s a really nice kit,” Smits said. “These can be used on horses, cows, mice — it doesn’t make a difference.” 

Smits said that four kits would be ideal, so Holland set up a GoFundMe to raise enough money to make the $400 purchase.

In a matter of days, Holland’s GoFundMe link raised the money needed to purchase the kits — plus an extra $23 to donate to the Green County Humane Society. 

Smits said that the kits will be put into squad cars and chief vehicles to be taken on calls.

According to Wag’N O2 Fur Life, 68% of American households own at least one pet — equating at least 84.6 million pets at risk of smoke inhalation in the case of a fire. Of those, about 40,000 pets die in residential fires each year. Most pet deaths are caused from smoke inhalation.