|
West Palm
Beach -- Ralph
Caruso's kitten has nine lives, but he has only one. And he was willing to
risk it for his beloved pet on a recent morning.
A homeless Caruso was the victim of an attack early morning on Dec. 14. His
arm was broken from the beating, but he refused to get into an ambulance,unless he could take
his kitty, Smoke, along.
It took a few sympathetic people,
willing to break the rules, to keep Caruso and his whiskered companion
together.
On Wednesday afternoon, Caruso and
Smoke were reunited, a week after he was admitted to Delray Medical Center.
The ordeal began when Caruso,
wandering in Delray Beach, was approached by a stranger. The two exchanged words and
the man started beating him with a pipe, said Caruso, 47.
"I had no idea who he
was," he said. "I tried to get away from him, but he kept following
me and kept going at me with a pipe."
Caruso said he escaped with Smoke and called paramedics, who told him pets
weren't allowed in the ambulance. Caruso wouldn't move without Smoke, a
gray-and-white cat with bright blue eyes who he found in the days following
Hurricane Wilma. Caruso, a construction worker, has been jobless since then,
he said, spending nights in motels.
"When I found Smoke, he was a few weeks old. He's been with me ever
since," Caruso said. "He's all I got."
Taken by Caruso's resolve, one of the paramedics agreed to put Smoke in the
front of the ambulance, Caruso said. When they reached Delray Medical Center, nurses bought food for the cat and kept it in a carrier
outside the hospital.
They tried to find a place for Smoke while Caruso recovered.
"They called around everywhere, even veterniarians,
but none of the places would take it," said Eve Van Engle, founder of
Paws-2-Help -- a mobile clinic offering spaying, neutering and vaccinations
to abandonded animals -- which took Smoke in.
"I guess the shelters were still full from hurricane pets," Van
Engle said.
Paws-2-Help had Smoke neutered and got him his shots. On Wednesday afternoon,
a groggy-looking Smoke was nestled in a pet bed inside the mobile clinic. The
clinic was parked next to a Dumpster where Van Engle has lived almost 26 days
to bring awareness to the number of pets abandonded each year.
She is asking the community to donate money or gift cards to Caruso and Smoke
so they can get back on their feet.
Several people came by to visit Smoke and greet the man who cared so much for
his pet. Some donated money and gift cards to pet stores for Caruso. One
person paid for a three-day hotel stay.
"I just think it's wonderful what he did," said Julian Bergan, 60, of West Palm Beach, who gave Caruso cat food, a new carrier and a book, Cats
for Dummies. "My family loves animals. We have eight rescue
cats."
When Caruso arrived, Van Engle brought him his bundle of joy.
"There's no word, no words [to describe this]," Caruso said, as he
cuddled Smoke, asking the cat for a kiss.
He described life without his pet as "miserable."
"I'll feed my cat before I feed myself," Caruso said. "That's
just me."
Ivette M. Yee can be reached at imyee@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6538.
|