The job of a rescuer is not only a hard one, but it never seems to end.
Every single day, they get flooded with rescue cases that need to be dealt with immediately. And, the best part is, they do it with smiles on their faces every time.
Rescuing animals is so much more than a job. The fact that they help out an animal in need fills them with so much happiness and joy that they can’t wait to do it again.
Peggy Harrell, shelter director and co-founder of the Animal Rescue Fund (ARF) of Mississippi, knows all about this feeling.
Rescue Mission
One rainy day, Harrell’s phone rang, informing her about a little fur ball who got herself stuck in a sticky situation.
The tiny animal was stuck in the marshy land right above a stormwater pond located at an apartment complex in Byram, Mississippi.
“The kitten was [on] a bog of growing grasses and vines. The bog was floating, and the kitten had found a woven maze of roots that was in the middle part of the floating bog,” Pippa Jackson, the other cofounder of ARF, told The Dodo.
They knew that the only reason why this little animal hadn’t fallen into the rushing water was because of her tiny size and weight.
One of the volunteers, a woman named Kelly Collins, rushed over to the pond in order to save this adorable baby. But, when she got there, she realized that this rescue mission wasn’t going to be simple.
“Kelly was … very unsure about getting into the bog and falling through, and was scared she would send the kitten running and then the kitten would drown,” Jackson said.
New Plan Of Action
With a little investigation, Collins found out that the animal was actually a kitten. Unfortunately, as she was not able to approach her, she had to go back to the shelter. But, even with this minor setback, the Mississippi shelter knew they couldn’t give up.
“We knew the kitten had little chance of survival overnight, between the water flushing through the storm drain, snakes and [the kitten] getting weak and cold and just succumbing to the elements,” Jackson wrote in a Facebook post.
Jackson formed a rescue group, which consisted of inmates from Central Mississippi Correctional Facility.
“She started SCREAMING to us, ‘HELP ME!’ We began trying to find her, trying to figure out how to get to her without getting waist deep in the cold water and figure out where exactly she was,” Jackson wrote.
Some of the rescuers immediately got into the water which, luckily, wasn’t too deep. Still, this rescue was definitely one of the wettest and muddiest the shelter has ever seen.
“If you have never been to an apartment complex, in the rain, with 14 inmates in stripes, wading around in a pond, you just ain’t living right. We had quite an audience across the street trying to figure out what this posse was doing, slip sliding around the pond, in the weeds and calling out in kitten speak,” Jackson wrote.
One of the rescuers saw an opportunity to save the kitten as it was scurrying the vines and roots. Finally, she was safe.
The kitten, now named Marsha, was immediately given a much-needed bath as well as a head-to-tail medical examination.
“Marsha is quite affectionate, loves to snuggle and being held. She is also partial to hamburgers!” Jackson said.
Home Sweet Home
A month after her nerve-wracking rescue mission, Marsha blossomed into the sweetest kitty ever who eagerly awaits for a family to sweep her off her paws.
“She’s something special. She’s sassy but incredibly sweet, loves snuggles, and followed me around all day in the cat room, curious about what all I was doing. Oh, and she’s GORGEOUS!” Jackson wrote.
I am sure that in no time, this incredible fluffy princess will find a loving forever home that will make every single day the best day ever.