|
|
Emergency Services Newsletter - Southeastern PA |
|
OUR
CLIENT RAMBO
By Natalie Watterworth, DAT Coordinator, Philadelphia Friday night city team I
have been
a local responder for three years now, and every disaster has touched me
in some manner, but this particular response touched my heart in
a warm and fuzzy way. One
night, Marie Conti, Paula Fantroyal and I arrived on the scene of a
fire. The gentleman who
lived there said his roommate had been smoking on the
sofa while he was at work. The
sofa must have been smoldering for several hours because there was
heavy smoke damage throughout the house.
Our client was not aware of the fire until he arrived home that
evening, and the fire department had left the scene hours before. When
we arrived, our client was very concerned about his cat Rambo.
Rambo had been stuck in the smoky house all day and had what we
thought was a burn the size of small rubber ball on his back.
Rambo’s fur was also very dirty from the smoke and soot.
If you know anything about cats, their fur is usually very
clean. Rambo looked like
he had had a very rough day. Our client was more concerned about his cat’s health than
any services that we could provide for him. So we called Ginny Kremer,
a Red Cross volunteer with Hopewell Veterinary Hospital, and she came to the rescue. When she arrived, Ginny gave Rambo an initial checkup and
found that the welt on his back was merely a piece of melted sofa
cushion that stuck to his fur; he did not suffer a burn like we had
initially thought. This
was our first sigh of relief. She
then took Rambo to Hopewell for a more extensive examination.
Ginny reports that Rambo was reunited with his owner a few days
later. What
touched me the most about this story was the fact that the American
Red Cross could provide such a great service that not only helped the
health of a pet, but also gave our client peace of mind after his
disaster. He could not
return to his home for a few days immediately following the fire, so
Rambo needed a place to stay while our client started his recovery
process. Additionally,
this was not the first fire that Rambo had been in.
Our client told us that Rambo showed up on his doorstep the
previous year after his original owners abandoned him and their home
after a fire. He told us that he took him in because he kept showing up, and
he felt sorry for him. I
am so glad that Rambo and his owner were reunited after this fire
thanks to our very own Ginny Kremer.
|
||
|
||
