Now HERE is a rescue story! (happy ending) I met my friend Peggy at a NJ turnpike rest stop to transfer a rescue cat to her and she told me this story... The Ocean City causeway connects the spit of land called Ocean City with mainland New Jersey. It is a long, curving, newly constructed bridge. Its massive cement foundations drop into the salt water bay, anchored by huge broken boulders and a fragment of a sea wall. Its a pretty long drop down to the base. On Monday a jogger heard a bird squawking fiercely. The jogger looked and saw the bird attacking a kitten at the base of one of the cement footers near the center of the long bridge. The bird appeared to be winning. Phone calls went out. Emails flurried. By Tuesday Facebook was lit up. Theres a kitten under the bridge, in the middle of the water! Nothing but choppy water around the kitten, and angry birds, and a coming storm. Tides and currents prevented a boat rescue that day. People scoped with binoculars, tracking the kitten. Peggy and a local Wildlife Aid lowered a bucket of food on a long rope. The plea went out on Facebook We need a boat! And then the storm came. For two days high winds, high tides, high waves and hurricane level rains pelted the east coast and the kitten. There was nothing but big jagged rocks and a small bit of built up sand at the bottom of the bridge footing. No shelter, no bush, not even a clump of grass to hang on to in the gale force ocean winds. People lost track of the kitten, couldnt see it through the rain. Two dark wet nights passed. The police were flooded with calls from residents threatening to take their own boats there, or to swim through the dangerous currents. The police has a public safety issue on their hands. Everyone seemed to know about the kitten. Then early this morning the captain of a tow boat called my friend Peggy and said Now. We have a small window with the tide. But heavy fog is rolling in. We go now! Peggy grabbed traps, nets, blankets and food and jumped in her car, then into the boat and went out into the bay. People on the bridge pointed to where the kitten was, far out on the edge of the rocks, licking sea shells. Peggy off loaded all her gear and sent the boat away to reduce the scare to the kitten. Bridge traffic roared overhead. Waves splashed. Peggy trusted her instincts and set down the net and traps and picked up the food. Upon sight of the food the kitten started its slow, clumsy, faltering walk towards her. As Peggy was opening the can the starving kitten pushed her nose in and started eating. Peggy did what rescuers do, in one swift, strong motions she grabbed it by the scruff with a hold iron bars couldnt pry loose. The kittens response? To reach out with both paws to hug the can of food to her chest and keep eating even while Peggy was lifting her into a carrier. Then onto the boat, to dry land, and straight to the local Humane Society for vet care. Word spread like wildfire. A crowd gathered in the lobby like a maternity waiting room. Rescuers with their children, boat captains, police, they all waited for the vet to bring little black and white Bridget out to them. The vet explained what she could see to all of them. Bridget was ok, was essentially a starving 5 month old kitten, and her entire back and sides are covered with odd injuries. Could be where the birds pecked at her, ... or could be where someone burned her with cigarettes. The birds would have more likely torn her apart for food. But bastards who hate cats would wound, not kill outright. The boat captain and police agree, there is no way a kitten could have gotten to that spot unless someone threw her down there. No one can tell how long shes been there. But tonight she is curled cozy in a cage in my friends home, eating her fill, warm, dry, safe, healing. After a couple months of weight gain shell be ready for adoption. With a story like hers she wont have to wait long. I salute my friend Peggy Thomson and the whole Atlantic City area rescue crew. Great save!
Posted on: Fri, 02 May 2014 02:44:19 +0000
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