A miraculous holiday season rescue

If you’ve paid attention to the news at all lately, you have heard about multiple cases of animal cruelty. Our news section is full of heart-wrenching stories of neglect, abuse and downright coldblooded…”people.” The prevalence of these sad stories is sickening. Another instance of animal cruelty took place last week in the strangest of locations in Omaha.

If you are from Omaha, you know the Dodge Expressway. If you aren’t familiar, the Expressway is an elevated thoroughfare that helps people  bypass streetlights at 114th and 120th streets on their way east into the heart of town or west on their way out of Omaha. The speed limit is 55, so cars travel pretty swiftly through the center of the city. The Expressway, believe it or not, was the site of Omaha’s latest case of a “pet owner” abusing its animal.

As Susie Thorne was traveling on the Dodge Expressway, a little orange object flew out of a car ahead of her. Swerving to miss the object, she realized that the tumbling mass was actually a cat. A CAT. Someone had thrown their kitten out of their vehicle on the fastest street in town. Unbelievable.

More unbelievable is the fact that when Thorne stopped her car to retrieve the cat, it wasn’t hissing, crying, biting or even hurt in the slightest bit. Whether you believe in miracles or not, the fact that this poor kitty was not injured- even killed- is mind-blowing.

After snatching the cat from the street, Thorne proceeded to the Nebraska Humane Society. But for the fact that she’s allergic to cats, Thorne says, she would have taken the cat home. Upon inspection at the Humane Society, again, no injuries were found. Just amazing.

“Benny,” as the cat is now known, is thought to be only a couple of months old and weighs but three pounds. He’s an orange tabby and is, as Thorne calls him, “the sweetest little boy.” The Humane Society processed Benny and prepared him for adoption upon his medical clearance.

Omahan Andee Hoig, who is the publisher and CEO of Metro Magazine, caught wind of Benny’s story and found herself at the Humane Society the next day, kitten in hand. Benny had a home, just days after escaping death on the Expressway.

“I made the decision to adopt him, but Susie Thorne made a decision to stop her car in the middle of the expressway to rescue him,” Hoig said. “It was because of her post on Facebook that he is with me today. We are all important links in the chain to him being here and his happiness. We all make a difference in the lives of animals when we show up and take action.”

There are animal cruelty stories all over the news, as we indicated before, and most of them end badly for the animals. Most of the time, things end badly for their owners, too, but in this case, the cowardly kitten tosser got away. The thought of a kitten being thrown out of a car window at 50, 60, 70 miles per hour is disturbing and mind-boggling, but given the outcome of this story, one could say it was the best thing that ever happened to Benny.

Stories like these make us pet lovers so angry it feels like our veins will explode, but luckily for us, there’s a happy ending to this nearly tragic tale. Benny is safe and sound in a new home with someone who will actually love him. Bless Andee for taking Benny in and we all hope the union is a great match. Benny has hit the jackpot it seems and this terrible event has turned into a miraculous holiday season rescue.