All this talk of fire departments reminds me of an important fact: Some of the best, fastest-moving, most dedicated, and most effective fire departments I’ve seen at work have been volunteer fire departments. But I suppose if you can’t be bothered to pay $75 to subscribe to the local  firefighting service, then you surely cannot be bothered to set up a volunteer fire company in your county.

Which brings me to one of my all-time favorite newspaper photos by the great Mike Mooney, one of my all-time favorite newspaper photographers: a volunteer firefighter in Lower Merion, Pa., rescues Oreo the cat from a house fire — just barely.

Some mornings, I feel a lot like Oreo, and probably look that way, too.