Rescue Tail / Pawcifer Lucky

Rescue Tail / Pawcifer Lucky

By Tara McFarland

On an early Monday morning, Deputies in Marathon responding to a call regarding a cat on the Seven Mile Bridge, the officers arrived on the scene to find a deceased adult cat. Deputy Rodriguez stopped his vehicle and saw a tiny kitten running close to traffic. He briefly lost sight of the little cat, yet he continued to search. Despite his best efforts he was unable to locate it. When more calls for service came in, Deputy Rodriguez was forced to give up his search and return to the field.

Nine hours later, towards the end of his shift, Deputy Rodriguez parked his vehicle at the station and was tending to business when the Sergeant walked by the vehicle and heard a cat meowing! With assistance from Deputy Westerband as well as officers from both the day and night shifts, visual confirmation was made that the kitten was up inside the vehicle sitting on the rear axle!

The officers went to work and  removed both rear tires from the patrol car to gain access to the frightened kitten. As the rescue efforts continued, additional problems came up and Dispatch contacted our Marathon Campus for assistance.

Staff immediately responded and when attempts to lure the kitten out failed, Aryel reached into the small void between the rear axle and the fuel tank and successfully captured the cat.The kitten was frightened, hot and exhausted from the day’s events. Miraculously, though he had ridden around under the vehicle the entire day, somehow he’d remained unscathed! After some time in the air conditioning, a cool bath to clean up and some syringe feedings, “Pawcifer Lucky” as he was named by the officers, curled up in a comfy bed and slept restfully through the night.

The following day one of the officers from the station reached out to our Marathon Campus wanting to foster Pawcifer Lucky until he was old enough to be adopted. He’s now safe with his foster family and growing into a strong and happy young kitten. As soon as he’s old enough to be adopted, his foster family is planning to keep him as their forever cat. His story could’ve had a million different endings, some of which could have certainly been tragic, but this little kitten earned his Lucky name and his story has the happiest of endings.