DELAWARE – An Eastern Shore News employee explained she was just doing the right thing when she rescued two kittens from likely drowning in a storm-swollen drainage ditch during a flash flood back on Friday, July 1.
“I’m not a hero — I couldn’t let them drown,” stated Virginia sales manager Megan Milliken-Lewis.
She was working at her desk in the News’ office on Courthouse Avenue, which is located in Accomac, when she heard a strange sound above the storm’s raging.
“I kept hearing something like crying, you know; so I went out there and I asked Cj (Cole) to come in here. I said, ‘Do you hear something like cats crying or something?’ She stated, ‘I don’t hear anything.’ ”
Then Milliken-Lewis heard the sound once again, so she went outside to see if she could determine from where it was coming.
“I could hear them screaming in the woods over there,” she stated, adding, “I could see how high the water was … I just couldn’t let them scream out there and not do anything — it was just killing me.”
And so she just kicked off her high heels and set out across the lawn in the torrential downpour, toward the ditch.
“I could hear them in there, but I couldn’t see them at all, so I had to go in to see if I could get them, and they were both just clinging to branches, underwater up to their necks.”
She caught hold of one kitten but could hear another still crying in the water.
She brought the first kitten back to the office before venturing back out into the clutches of the raging thunderstorm.
“He was even farther in; so the second time — I guess that ditch gets deeper — because to get to him, I was up to my neck in water. I looked down and I saw a rat swimming by and two mice swim by,” she stated.
She even lost a pair of flip-flops she had put on after the first venture, trying to protect her feet from the briars growing in the ditch.
Other Eastern Shore News staff members did their best to dry and comfort the bedraggled cats after the rescue, and marketing consultant Sam Sellard and staffer Cj Cole each took one home to care for over the long holiday weekend.
One of the kittens, a tiger-stripe Sellard tentatively who has since been named Noah, is up for adoption to a good home.
Sellard and his wife, whose name is Jean, took the cat to the veterinarian, where it got a clean bill of health. He is happy to pay for the first round of shots and neutering if it means finding a good home for this wee one of a kitten, Noah. If you’re interested, call Sam at 757-709-8252.
