I like to think that I’m a good enough driver to spot possible issues along the side of the road and avoid them safely if necessary, but I know that if I’d been the person speeding down a highway at rush hour, I wouldn’t be eagle-eyed enough to do what Kristyn Gamblain did on her way to work.
Sure, I might have spotted a dark blob sticking out from one of the concrete barriers, but I probably wouldn’t have noticed it move.
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Kristyn is far more adept than most people, though, and not only did she see it move, but she was pretty sure it was the butt-end of a kitten.
In her now viral Facebook post , she says she was doing about 60 MPH at the time and it took her two more exits to convinced herself that yes, she’d seen a trapped kitten, and hell yes was she going to go back to save it.
Unsure of where exactly she’d seen it, she circled back to her original entrance onto the highway.
Slowing down to a leisurely 45 MPH in the “fast lane”, she watched the barriers for the kitten and pulled over as close to the barrier as possible when she spotted the little tail flicking slowly.
The kitten was well and truly stuck in the crevice between two barriers. In its struggle, it was moving up into where the barely two-inch gap became narrower, so Kristyn wedged her shoe in to prevent the kitty from getting in even tighter.
Now picture what this looks like to other drivers.
A woman is pulled over in the safety strip of the highway, still partially blocking the lane with her hazards on, kneeling in front of a concrete barrier without shoes on.
So yeah, a passing highway patrol officer pulled over to investigate.
Luckily, as soon as Officer Bennet understood what was up, she called Animal Control and then set about helping to rescue the trapped kitten.
Soon after, another cop car pulled over and an officer began setting out traffic cones to more smoothly direct traffic around the rescue operation.
Officer Galbraith also turned out to have much smaller hands, so she was able to get them in farther and feel that a loose piece of rock was the culprit trapping the kitten in place.
Finally after about 45 minutes of wiggling, more roadside assistance vehicles arriving, and deft use of a multitool to dislodge the offending rock, the kitten was free!
There were cheers all around and though Kristyn had literally just adopted another kitten a week prior, when asked if she was going to keep this new one, there was no question.
“How could I not when I just spent 45mins rescuing her!”
So Kristyn took the little rescue home to meet her new kitten sibling, Ginni, and quickly decided on a name: Jersey, after the Jersey barriers the poor thing had been stuck between.
h/t: The Dodo
