There is a bit of global warming in this kitten rescue story, if you believe in climate change as I do. The story is timely with COP26 rumbling on at Glasgow at the moment. The scientists are at one on global warming: it is happening. We should trust in them and get on with stopping it for the sake of generations to come.
Skip and Nancy Campbell in Sacramento California spotted a kitten apparently drowning in a fast flowing, bloated river (normally a stream) near their home. They are familiar with rescuing feral cats and have adopted some themselves. On this day the rainfall had been the most severe since 1880 according to Newsweek as 5.4 inches fell, causing flooding. What was normally a creek turned into a bloated river and bobbing on and below the surface was the tiny head of a kitten spotted by Nancy, Skip’s wife.
The kitten was fortunate because Skip knows the terrain very well. He knew the lie of the land underneath the water and decided it was safe to wade into it as you can see in the video. He plucked the kitten from the torrent, waded back with a smile on his face holding the complaining kitten by the scruff of the neck.
Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
They dried him off and called her Stormy. There were going to adopt her out and advertised her on Facebook but when Stormy snuggled up to their older daughter Michelle for a few hours it was game over according to Skip.
“Well, here’s an update: I think we are keeping Stormy. Shocker I know. She snuggled with my older daughter Michelle last night for a few hours and it was over.”
Stormy was a feral or stray kitten and is rapidly becoming a domestic cat. Actually judging by that last statement I think we can state with some confidence that Stormy was not a true feral when rescue but she is a true domestic cat now.
In the photograph above she looks like a black cat but actually she’s quite a light grey as you can see in the photograph below published on Facebook.
Postscript: Apparently some people have criticised Skip for the way he carried Stormy out of the water and the way he presented Stormy before the camera at the end. I understand that. He was completely in his rights to catch Stormy by the scruff in the water. This is because it made her more passive (kitten response). If he had to grapple with what he thought was a feral cat under those circumstances it was likely that the cat would have escaped after struggling and found herself back in the water.
It was a question of getting the job done. Entirely understandable. I think at the end he might have supported the cat with his other hand when smiling at the camera. But you don’t know how feral or how agitated a cat is going to be so it is not a time for being overly concerned about comfort but more about carrying out an effective rescue; to save a life. That was the primary purpose under these difficult circumstances.
Story from Amanda Thomason of The Western Journal.
SOME MORE ON FLOODS:
#10 Downing Street should be looking to retire Larry he’s almost 14-15 now? I’ve been advocating for their next “Mouser In Chief” to be a girl kitty. I have found my females cats to catch more mice and rats then my males. My males sit and watch opossums and racoons eat their food but the females won’t put up with it. And maybe a female kitty won’t beat up Palmerston every week LOL.