Maybe you should train Jelly

I read an article last week on Yahoo news about this guy and his heroic cat.

The guy had a heart attack or something, and, supposedly, his cat dialed 911. No, seriously.

When officers arrived at the home, they found the man unconscious on the floor and his faithful cat there, waiting beside them. There was a phone with huge buttons on it sitting on the floor on the other side of the room off the hook, as well.

They called an ambulance, raced the guy to the hospital, and his life was saved. They later interviewed him to see what had happened.

He had told them he had gotten the cat a couple of years prior to help lower his blood pressure (pets seem to calm people down). He saw that the cat was pretty smart right away, so he thought maybe he could train the cat to help him out if he ever needed it.

He said he had purchased a phone with large buttons on it that were programmable. He placed the phone on the floor so the cat could easily access it, and, somehow trained the cat to push the 911 button in case of an emergency.

He also said he wasn't sure the training had ever took up until that point because there had never been a reason to dial 911 before.

The police themselves were baffled because it really did look like the cat had called them. When dispatch got the call, there was no one on the other end of the line, and, when they called back, the phone line was busy. So, they decided to send a car out just in case.

My question is: How do you train a cat to know what an emergency is? And how do you get the cat to ONLY push the button during this said emergency? I mean, the guy was never in the can a little too long, long enough to make the cat nervous and dial? The guy never left for the day, and the cat decided to try out his newly learned skill?

The whole thing, while sweet, is a little hokey to me.