The Conley Garage car inspection station was too busy in Wimberley the other day at 11:00 a.m. so we decided instead on an early picnic lunch at the H-E-B supermarket. Ensconced on our chairs in the little picnic area under the trees with our salads, we were enjoying our lunch until a harried-looking man hove into view on our left coming from the lower end of the parking lot. He noticed us and said, “There's a little kitten paddling for its life inside that fenced area”, pointing behind him, “ down in the drainage ditch and it needs help.” He continued on up to the store and came back with one of the employees. They both assessed the situation and went back toward the store. The worried gentleman seemed loath to leave the situation without it being solved but he also seemed anxious to get back to work. He finally returned to his truck telling us in passing that a very helpful fellow he spoke to would tend to the cat in a few minutes with a ladder as soon as he had finished what he was doing at the construction site of the supermarket.
And soon a couple of men carrying a ladder passed us walking down the parking lot to the fenced ditch area. The ladder went over the fence but it seemed there was still a big problem. The problem was that the ditch was deep and filled with nasty stagnant water and this was the ‘soup’ the kitten was trying to stay afloat in. Actually, the ditch was a long retention pond for H-E-B’s parking lot that still held water from recent rains and had steep, muddy and slick sides that the cat couldn’t get a purchase on to climb out. More men arrived and one offered to divest himself of his boots and wade into the water after the animal. However, he was immediately advised against doing that as the probability that the bottom of the ditch was filled with broken glass, old cans and other sources of infection was great. Finally after at least 45 minutes had elapsed with the off and on efforts of at least a dozen concerned men the cat had managed with help of a plastic crate with holes in it to pull itself to the top of a 3’x3’x3’ caged rock- filter where it lay, an exhausted little bundle of fur with two little discernible cat ears.
The Hays County animal control unit, we were told, was on its way and about 15- 20 minutes later we directed them to the spot where the cat lay. The ladder bearers again appeared and we left the scene in the capable hands of the Hays County pair. We were observers of this whole little drama as so many people became directly involved and worked so hard to become a part of the solution to the little animal’s problem.
And we think there's a tiny black cat right now snuggled in a warm towel with a full belly that is eternally grateful to all of those people for their help. Where else but in America aided by the ‘Can Do’ people of Wimberley!
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