From interstate pillar to foster home, ‘Ledge Cat’ is safe thanks to Newport News first responders
All it took was a simple and direct text message, and the emergency dispatchers instantly knew the evolving situation on the ground had changed.
“I’m gonna need fire,” the message read.
Newport News Emergency Communications Center dispatchers Flora Soul and Katy Thomason immediately called for a change of tactics — hastening a firetruck to get en route, to make it to the scene in time — according to a press release.
An emaciated cat was in potentially life-threatening danger, stuck on the ledge of a cement column that supports an interstate overpass.
Firefighters, state police, animal shelter, animal referral and animal welfare center staff as well as the dispatchers themselves would all contribute to the life-saving measures that ultimately ensured the feline’s survival.
The tale began Wednesday.
A concerned citizen called Newport News Animal Welfare Division alerting authorities that they’d spotted a cat on the interstate. Dispatchers Soul and Thomason provided Virginia State Police with the cat’s location.
Authorities headed that way and quickly learned they’d received inaccurate information about the animal’s exact whereabouts. The cat was not on the interstate. The cat was on top of the cement pillar, and Soul and Thomason received the text.
“I’m gonna need fire.”
Newport News Fire Department firefighters arrived 15 minutes later, and three firefighters wearing cat cloves and armed with an animal transfer cage scaled a ladder. During their ascent, the cat skirted away and back towards the opposite side of the pillar.
NNFD Lt. Pat Primeaux reached out his hand. The cat moved forward. He kept his hand still, outstretched. She drew even nearer and then pranced right into the lieutenant, bumping his hand with her head.
Firefighters discovered the cat’s front paw was pinned inside her non-breakaway collar which had embedded into her leg that was cut and infected. They found additional lacerations on other parts of her body and several burns on her paws.
The cat, which authorities began referring to as “Ledge Cat,” was furthermore dehydrated, emaciated and weighted slightly over three pounds.
Emergency responders drove Ledge Cat to Peninsula Animal Referral Center, and Dr. Rachel Gunther and her vet care team stayed hours past the center’s closing time to suture her wounded leg.
On Thursday, Ledge Cat was escorted to the Peninsula Regional Animal Shelter where she was accessed by more veterinarians and put into the shelter’s system.
Later that day, dispatcher Soul arrived at the shelter, fostered and took Ledge Cat home.
Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8139, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com
