By Dick Lindsay
The Berkshire Eagle
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Firefighters have a reputation of rescuing cats stuck high up in trees — not from the undercarriage of a car.
However, Pittsfield firefighters on Thursday found themselves working carefully to extricate an extremely agitated black and gray tiger cat caught in the wheel well of a red Hyundai that had stopped at the corner of Cherry and Tyler streets shortly after 10 a.m.
The driver, whom police didn’t identify, had apparently only driven a couple of blocks when eyewitnesses, who saw the cat dangling from beneath the vehicle along Tyler, flagged him down.
“I was stunned to see the cat’s feet flailing away, almost touching the ground,” said Joann King. Fortunately the driver didn’t go any further.”
King and her friend, Don Dwyer, both of Pittsfield, were in their car behind the Hyundai. They, along with the driver and nearby city workers, tried to free the feline to no avail.
City firefighters were then called to the scene where they jacked up the car using the Jaws of Life — normally used to free humans trapped in wreckage of a crash — in order to reach the pet.
“The fur and some skin had wrapped around the drive shaft,” said Deputy Fire Chief Andrew Stephenson. “Once we cut away some fur and saw how the skin was twisted, we turned the wheel in the reverse direction to loosen it and free the animal.”
Animal Control Officer Joseph Shague took the cat to Berkshire Veterinary Hospital on Crane Avenue where it was treated and released to its owner early in the afternoon. Hospital officials wouldn’t identify the owner or comment on the patient’s condition, but eyewitnesses said the cat appeared to have escaped serious injury.
“I don’t think it was harmed as much as it was frightened to death,” said Dwyer.
He and King speculate the feline likely got under the hood of the car to stay warm in the cold weather. Temperatures were in the 30s at the time of the rescue.
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