A couple’s short trip away turned into a freak accident after their hungry cat left their home smelling of burnt plastic all because he wanted more food.
In a post to Reddit’s r/cats community, user u/Independent_Dot6161 described returning home after one night away to find their house filled with smoke. The culprit, they believed, was their black cat trying to break into his kibble stash.
Newsweek reached out to u/Independent_Dot6161 via direct message on Reddit.
According to the post, the couple had left out food before leaving, but their cat apparently decided it wasn’t enough.
His food is stored in a plastic container kept on top of the microwave, which sits on a countertop beside the oven. A cast-iron skillet is typically stored on the stovetop near the microwave.
The owner suspected the cat tried to knock the food container down to access more food. In the process, the container allegedly hit an oven dial, turning the stove onto its lowest setting. The dial then fell into the cast-iron pan, where it began to melt and smoke.
By the time the couple returned the next morning, the home was hazy with smoke and carried what the owner described as a strong burning-plastic odor. Fortunately, nothing had caught fire.
The cat, meanwhile, was found hiding inside his enclosed litter box in the bathroom, which the owner speculated may have been a refuge from the smoke.
“We’re taking him to the vet first thing Monday,” the original poster wrote. “He looks fine and is behaving normal. Is there anything I can do to get this smell out of my house? I’ve also included pics of the offender.”
At the time of writing, the post has clocked up over 15,000 upvotes. Many other Reddit users reacted with relief that the incident wasn’t worse—and shared their own near-misses involving pets and stoves.
“This could have been way worse,” one commenter wrote. “As someone whose cat also tried to start a fire when jumping on the stovetop, I recommend getting childproofing oven knob covers. They’re not expensive and they will help to prevent future accidents.”
Another user strongly agreed, arguing that such safety devices should be standard. “I can’t reiterate enough how important these are; they should just come with the whole stove. My grandpa used to get up in the middle of the night disoriented and sometimes turn the stove on. These are pet-proof, childproof, elderly-proof—even accidental-movement-in-the-middle-of-the-day-proof.”
Some shared even more alarming experiences. “We just take the knobs off,” one commenter said, recounting how their cat once turned on a gas stove without a pilot light. They woke up to the smell of gas and had to air out and evacuate the home. “Could not believe how much gas was in the house.”
Another described a similarly close call involving a cat who liked to climb onto the refrigerator via the stove. A misplaced jump slightly opened a gas knob without igniting it. “Thankfully our roommate got home, smelled the gas and got all the animals out,” they wrote, adding that knob covers were installed immediately and never removed.
Pet experts and fire safety officials have long warned that pets can accidentally activate stovetops by stepping on touch controls or bumping knobs. The ASPCA recommended using knob covers, removing knobs when not in use and keeping pets off cooking surfaces to reduce risk.