A Mother’s Bonding With Her Babies
She was just a stray, short-haired, nameless cat with five kittens, trying to make it on the mean streets of East New York. She had set up housekeeping in a dilapidated abandoned garage subject to many suspicious fires. She scoured the neighborhood for scraps of garbage that would make it possible for her to nourish her growing brood.
All of this was about to change at 6:06 on the morning of March 29, 1996. A suspicious fire quickly engulfed the garage. The cat family’s home was in flames. Ladder Company 175 responded and soon had the blaze under control. David Giannelli, one of the firemen, heard the cries of the kittens. He found three of them just outside the building, another one three quarters of the way across the street, and the fifth on the sidewalk. The kittens were too young to have escaped on their own. Giannelli noticed that each kitten’s burns were progressively more severe, some having waited longer for rescue as the mother cat carried them out one by one.
The account on the New York Daily News of April 7, 1996, gave this report on the mother’s whereabouts and care: “Giannelli discovered mama keeled over in pain in a nearby vacant lot and the sight broke his heart. Her eyelids were swollen shut from the smoke. The pads of her feet were badly burned. There were horrible scorch-marks on her face, ears and legs. Giannelli found a cardboard box. Gently he placed the mamma cat and kittens inside. “She couldn’t even open her eyes,” said Giannelli. “But she touched them one by one with her paw, counting them.”
When they arrived at the North Shore Animal League, it was touch and go. The account continued: “Drugs to combat shock were used. An intravenous tube filled with antibiotics was hooked up to the brave feline. Antibiotic creams were gently spread on the burns. Then she was placed in an oxygen-tank cage to help her breath as the entire animal league staff held her breaths. … Within 48 hours, the heroine was sitting up. Her swollen eyes opened and doctors found no damage.”
Stop and reflect. Take a moment to see in your mind’s eye this courageous mother, with her natural fear of fire, going into the smoke-filled, burning building to rescue her crying babies. To go in once to carry out her tiny helpless kittens would be incredible; to it five times, each time with the pain of additional burns to her feet and face, is unimaginable! The brave animal was dubbed Scarlett because the burns showed the skin underneath which was scarlet, or red.
When this touching story of a mother’s bond with her babies was flashed around the world from the North Shore Animal League, the phones began ringing off the hook. More than 6,000 people from as far away as Japan, the Netherlands, and South Africa called to inquire about Scarlett’s condition. Some 1,500 have offered to adopt Scarlett and her brood. One kitten later died.
Scarlett touched the hearts of people around the world. It makes you wonder if the hearts of the millions of mothers today who dispose of their children while still in the womb or shortly after birth, through abuse, are not disturbed by Scarlett’s example of the bond between a mother and her babies.
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