With all the trouble in the world, war, pestilence, oppression, poverty, disease, Democrats, it's nice to see something come across once in a while that makes one feel unambiguously good. This is one of those; following the dreadful tornadoes that did so much damage to the great state of Mississippi, one man was picking through the wreckage, and was alerted to the presence of a tiny survivor by an equally tiny meow.
As storm chaser Ashton Lemley picked his way through a tornado-ravaged Mississippi trailer park, he heard the unmistakable meow of a kitten pierce the predawn darkness.
The homes were flattened just hours earlier as storms spawned at least three tornadoes across the bottom half of Mississippi, injuring a dozen at the trailer park in the rural community of Bogue Chitto.
Lemley had no idea where the kitten was, but he was determined to find it. After a few minutes, the meowing stopped, and Lemley feared the worst.
Then, five minutes later, he heard it again.
“I said, ‘Oh, he’s still alive!’” Lemley told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Anyone who wouldn't respond to that has surely surrendered their humanity. Left, right, middle, no matter where one is on the political spectrum, it's hard to imagine anyone not responding to the cry of distress from a kitten.
Lemley quickly dug under insulation from a flattened wall until his flashlight beam found the kitten — wet, scared and hiding between two wooden posts.
Lemley captured the moment on video: “Oh my goodness, I found him!” he says to the camera. “Are you OK? Come here – it’s OK. … We’ll get you cleaned up, baby. Don’t you worry.”
Lemley held the kitten in his arms for a few minutes before handing it off to the commander of the United Cajun Navy, a volunteer disaster-response group, who dried it off and took it to safety. Lemley marveled that it didn’t appear to be injured.
That's a heartwarming tale. Even in a disaster, the life of a kitten matters.
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Cats are probably one of the first animals to form an association with humans, and unlike many of our domestic animals, our relationship with cats originally came with advantages for both sides. Early human habitations were not very sanitary and attracted vermin. Cats quickly learned that human encampments made good hunting grounds for rats and mice. Humans learned that cats kept nasty vermin in check. It was a good deal for both, even if now, it doesn't obtain in quite the same way; as the saying goes, "dogs have owners, cats have staff."
Few humans, though, have summed up cats better than Rudyard Kipling:
But the Cat keeps his side of the bargain too. He will kill mice and he will be kind to Babies when he is in the house, just as long as they do not pull his tail too hard. But when he has done that, and between times, and when the moon gets up and night comes, he is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to him. Then he goes out to the Wet Wild Woods or up the Wet Wild Trees or on the Wet Wild Roofs, waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone.
The kitten will be up for adoption. Its rescuer, though, won't be caring for the little tot. Ashton Lemley, it seems, is allergic to cats.
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