Okay, I'm really telling this story because I'm fishing for complements, and because I want to announce a new member of the family.
Yesterday, while returning home from work, I noticed an accident on the side of the road near my entry point of the freeway. I don't really rubber neck, but there were people on the side of the freeway, so I had one eye on them. When I put my attention back on the road ahead, I noticed something flopping in center lane of the freeway. It was small and fuzzy and wasn't injured, just confused about where to run, with traffic on either side. I swerved and made a path for it and I noticed it was a kitten as it made it to the roadside. (Note: the kitten was not the cause of the accident.) The area where the kitten made it too was under a railroad overpass and was 100 ft. on either side of concrete with no real way for the kitten to get to the grassy area behind. The area where this all was happening is in the middle of the busiest downtown freeway and was 200ft. from an extremely dangerous turn dubbed "deadman's curve" during rush hour. I felt bad for the little guy so I shot off the next exit and traveled back to my original entry point. As I went by a second time I couldn't see him so I thought he was either hit or made it to the grassy area.
I went home and told my fiance' about it. We had a meeting to go to back downtown 2 hours later. We left for the meeting early to pick up some dinner, and along the way, since we were early, I decided to drive by the place where my fuzzy friend was last seen and see if my co-pilot could spot it. Sure enough she yelled, "There it is, there it is!" I immediatly pulled over and started running back down the side of the freeway. Here was a lil' grey kitten huddled shaking and half passed out with exhaustive fear. As I approached it, it hissed and bolted along the side of the freeway. I outpaced it and when I confronted it, it tried to run accross the freeway again. Not good! It realized it's mistake and ran back to the side of the road. I had to rethink this. Even if I got to it I didn't want to get bit handling it. I don't know what it's health is and we have a current rabies apidemic happening here.
As I stood there contemplating, another car pulls over and a lady comes out to help. The kitten bolts from me and doesn't see her, so the lady caught it. It immediatly turns and takes a big bite of the lady, it's savior. So my fiance' reaches out and grabs it. At which time it promptly takes a chunk out of her too. So I reach in and grab the little bugger by they skruff, so it can't bite me and head back to the car to grab a towel I had there. I wrap up and tie off the kitten.
The lady thanks us for saving and taking the kitten, I tell her to head to a hospital to get the bite checked and we take off. I run my fiance to the ER as she calls her GP. The nurse on the phone tells her to go to the ER within 4 hours as we are pulling into the ER. I know she is in for a wait, so I drop her off and go to put the kitten in a cage at our apt. When get back to the hospital, they are just getting to my fiance'. They take her upstairs to a GP instead of making her wait in the ER. Then they loose her paperwork. It's now the 3 hours since the bite. When we finally get to the doc, he says he has bad news. Since he assumes we don't have the cat, my fiance is going to need the whole rabies shot series. That's 8 painfull shots in the gut! We tell him we have the cat in the apartment. He's pleased to hear that because he says we don't need to get the shots, just monitor the cat for 2 weeks for rabies symtoms.
So now we have a new family member, Speedbump the kitten. I'll post pics as soon as I get my camera working again.
Yesterday, while returning home from work, I noticed an accident on the side of the road near my entry point of the freeway. I don't really rubber neck, but there were people on the side of the freeway, so I had one eye on them. When I put my attention back on the road ahead, I noticed something flopping in center lane of the freeway. It was small and fuzzy and wasn't injured, just confused about where to run, with traffic on either side. I swerved and made a path for it and I noticed it was a kitten as it made it to the roadside. (Note: the kitten was not the cause of the accident.) The area where the kitten made it too was under a railroad overpass and was 100 ft. on either side of concrete with no real way for the kitten to get to the grassy area behind. The area where this all was happening is in the middle of the busiest downtown freeway and was 200ft. from an extremely dangerous turn dubbed "deadman's curve" during rush hour. I felt bad for the little guy so I shot off the next exit and traveled back to my original entry point. As I went by a second time I couldn't see him so I thought he was either hit or made it to the grassy area.
I went home and told my fiance' about it. We had a meeting to go to back downtown 2 hours later. We left for the meeting early to pick up some dinner, and along the way, since we were early, I decided to drive by the place where my fuzzy friend was last seen and see if my co-pilot could spot it. Sure enough she yelled, "There it is, there it is!" I immediatly pulled over and started running back down the side of the freeway. Here was a lil' grey kitten huddled shaking and half passed out with exhaustive fear. As I approached it, it hissed and bolted along the side of the freeway. I outpaced it and when I confronted it, it tried to run accross the freeway again. Not good! It realized it's mistake and ran back to the side of the road. I had to rethink this. Even if I got to it I didn't want to get bit handling it. I don't know what it's health is and we have a current rabies apidemic happening here.
As I stood there contemplating, another car pulls over and a lady comes out to help. The kitten bolts from me and doesn't see her, so the lady caught it. It immediatly turns and takes a big bite of the lady, it's savior. So my fiance' reaches out and grabs it. At which time it promptly takes a chunk out of her too. So I reach in and grab the little bugger by they skruff, so it can't bite me and head back to the car to grab a towel I had there. I wrap up and tie off the kitten.
The lady thanks us for saving and taking the kitten, I tell her to head to a hospital to get the bite checked and we take off. I run my fiance to the ER as she calls her GP. The nurse on the phone tells her to go to the ER within 4 hours as we are pulling into the ER. I know she is in for a wait, so I drop her off and go to put the kitten in a cage at our apt. When get back to the hospital, they are just getting to my fiance'. They take her upstairs to a GP instead of making her wait in the ER. Then they loose her paperwork. It's now the 3 hours since the bite. When we finally get to the doc, he says he has bad news. Since he assumes we don't have the cat, my fiance is going to need the whole rabies shot series. That's 8 painfull shots in the gut! We tell him we have the cat in the apartment. He's pleased to hear that because he says we don't need to get the shots, just monitor the cat for 2 weeks for rabies symtoms.
So now we have a new family member, Speedbump the kitten. I'll post pics as soon as I get my camera working again.
