As soon as veteran rescuer John Debacker was notified about a mysterious creature stranded on the Grand Central Parkway, he understood that every second counted.
He contacted his friend Karenlynn Stracher for backup, and together they stepped into a dangerous situation, navigating four lanes of fast-moving traffic to help the creature in distress.
A Race Against Traffic
When John and Karenlynn reached the scene, they found the distressed animal sitting on the center median.
As they got closer, they discovered it was a terrified cat. Knowing that cats often react unpredictably, they moved toward her with great care.
With vehicles rushing past on both sides, John wrapped his hands in a blanket and attempted to pick her up. Startled, she bolted and ran straight into the lanes of traffic.
The heart-pounding moment was captured on video:
To their horror, the cat zigzagged through moving cars. She somehow made it through two lanes before collapsing in the third, stunned and unable to move.
“I immediately hopped the barrier and forced traffic to a stop where the cat was seen laying in the number 3 lane, still alive, but stunned,” John wrote in a Facebook post.
John rushed toward her, lifted her carefully, and wrapped her tightly in a blanket. As he held her, Karenlynn retrieved a trap from their vehicle.
“I grabbed her with all of my might and I wrapped her in a blanket…” John shared.
He then carried the injured cat across the highway and secured her safely inside the trap.
Amazingly, despite the chaos and danger, the cat appeared to have no physical injuries. She was shaken but alive. John named her Miracle.
A Reunion No One Expected
John transported Miracle to the emergency vet right away for a complete checkup. To his relief, the vet confirmed that she had not been hurt at all.
She was then scanned for a microchip, and the results revealed something incredible. She did not just have an owner, but she lived more than a mile away from the highway.
“It came up to over a mile away from where she was found, so we were able to reunite her with her parents,” John told The Dodo.
Miracle’s real name was Flamingo, and once she received clearance from the vet, she was reunited with her family, who were overwhelmed with gratitude.
No one knows how Flamingo ended up in such a dangerous place, but John was grateful she survived and made it home where she belonged.
What touched him most was what he witnessed while rescuing her.“Seeing all lanes of traffic come to a halt for an animal was an amazing sight to see, seeing so many people care,” John concluded.