MUSCATINE — A lucky local cat can now heal in the comfort of his home with his owner by his side, thanks to a resident with a keen eye for tail wags.
Kelly Peak was driving down Park Avenue earlier this week when she spotted a cat lying in the middle of the road. Though she didn’t see the accident happen, she could tell that it had been hit by a car.
"But, then I realized that it was actually still alive," Peak said upon seeing the cat move its tail a bit while trying to lift its head. "I was just hoping that there would be a vet that would be willing to see him. That was the biggest thing on my mind, just trying to do something that could help him because I couldn’t just leave him lying in the road."
Despite busy traffic, Peak pulled over and picked the cat up using her coat. She then went to Muscatine Veterinary Hospital, where the cat was immediately tended to by staff and given pain medication.
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"It didn’t look to me like it had a good outlook because it had blood coming out of its mouth, so I was really concerned," Peak said. "But he started to perk up a little after we gave him some pain medicine."
Veterinarian Nate Wall examined the cat. Though the cat’s jaw was injured, it didn’t seem to have any broken bones at the time of the check-up. The cat was also eating and drinking while in the veterinary hospital’s care.
“I was just so proud of (Peak),” Wall said. “I just wanted to hug her for what she did for this poor kitty. She made the decision to stop and pick this cat off the pavement, not knowing whose cat it was.”
Wall said he was hopeful the cat would survive the extent of its injuries.
“(The cat) seemed like he was staying pretty stable while it was here, so that’s always a good sign," Wall said.
Once the cat was in the hospital’s care, Peak took to Facebook to find the cat’s owner since it didn’t have a microchip. Within roughly an hour, the owner reached out to the hospital and was able to take her cat home that same day.
"I really just wanted to find out if the cat belonged to someone so that they knew where their cat was because I know I would be lost and very upset if anything ever happened to mine," Peak said. “When an animal or someone is suffering, instinct just kind of kicks in and you gotta do whatever you can to try and help."
Efforts to reach the cat's owner for comment were unsuccessful.
Should others come upon and feel compelled to render aid to an injured animal, Wall cautioned would-be rescuers to be mindful of those animals potentially lashing out.
“What I worry about the most is that (the hurt animal) is so scared and anxious and in pain that I would expect them to not understand that someone’s trying to help them," he said. “Luckily this cat wasn’t reacting in that way. … But even people who are helping their own pets that have been injured badly oftentimes will get bit, so that’s probably the thing to be most careful about."
