Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 17, 1994 TAG: 9411170117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Just as he approached the Orange Avenue exits, he spotted a small, gray mound. From a distance, it looked like a squirrel or a rabbit, he said.
But as he got closer, he saw it was a cat, desperately dodging vehicles as it made its way across the road.
Prillaman swerved to miss it. Then he pulled over.
"I stopped to see if the animal could be helped," Prillaman said. "My heart just went out to that cat."
The Roanoke Police Department received a call about 11 a.m. Wednesday about a cat on the highway.
A witness said the cat had been huddled at the southbound side of a concrete median for about an hour, injured and afraid to move. It then started inching its way north and finally tried to cross the three lanes of traffic.
The cat got in the outer lane and froze as cars whizzed by and even over it. As it sat in the middle lane, a tractor-trailer braked, leaving a few feet of tread marks. From there, the cat, its broken leg flopping, made a run to a grassy patch beyond the shoulder.
Prillaman and another passer-by were able to pin the cat down with a piece of cardboard just as a Roanoke animal control officer pulled up.
The gloved officer placed the cat in a cage and told Prillaman he was taking it to the Roanoke Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Prillaman told the officer he wanted to adopt the cat.
He had a name picked out - Lucky - figuring any animal that had endured so much certainly was worthy of the name.
An SPCA employee took the cat to North Roanoke Veterinary Hospital. It was examined and found to have multiple fractures, internal injuries and a mangled right leg that would have to be amputated. And it was deemed wild.
The cat was put to death.
Prillaman said later Wednesday that he was saddened to hear what had happened to the cat he was preparing to adopt.
"We saved him from the worst of things but couldn't save him from the simplest of things," he said.
by CNB