Published: April 04, 2008 03:28 pm            

RESCUED: Kitten is saved by Love and National Grid

It was the crows that got their attention.

Roberta Love and her husband were walking near their home on Meadow, when they saw a huge, barren tree filled with cawing crows.

When they looked a little closer they saw what seemed to be the reason for all the noise, a little black and white kitten was stuck in the tree and the crows seemed to be having way to much fun at the frightened cat’s expense.

For three days Love worried. She called everyone she could think of.

The police and fire departments were unable to help, although the fire chief himself came over to look. The SPCA’s of both Erie and Niagara County were also helpless. The cat was too high up in the tree. Even the public works department of North Tonawanda couldn’t get up high enough with their equipment. The neighborhood kids tried to reach the kitty with a extension ladder and even climbers from the Niagara Climbing Center were stalled because they couldn’t get their safety ropes secure on the high branches.

Monday, Roberta — desperate to get help to the distressed cat — spotted a giant National Grid cherry picker while driving on the Youngmann. She got off at the next exit, raced through a muddy field to get to the crew, and begged the linemen to come over to Meadow and Wayne in North Tonawanda.

Steve Barone, a line mechanic from National Grid, and his partner, maxed out the extension of their cherry picker to grab the cat from the tree, and gently carried the creature in a blanket down to street level. Both men expressed gratitude to their foreman for giving them the go-ahead to assist the distressed cat.

“My fear was to eventually find a little hunk of fur on the branch,” said Love, delightedly holding the purring cat in her arms. She called the rescue, “just great! It’s like Animal Planet all over,” she smiled.



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File Photo

HARRY’S HONORED: Harry Kuligowski, the North Tonawanda vet who initiated efforts to bring Honor Flight to the Niagara region, holds a photo of the WWII monument in Washington, D.C.



First Honor Flight is set to bring WWII vets to monument



Remember my friend Harry Kuligowski of North Tonawanda who was trying to get Honor Flight to come to the Niagara Region?

Honor Flight, as you may recall, is the national program designed to get World War II veterans to Washington D.C. so that can lay their eyes on the monument created to honor their efforts.

With the help of Debbie Mellon, president of the volunteer group called Friends and Family Support Association at the Niagara Air Base, the gears are starting to turn.

An single honor flight is set to take a plane load of vets to D.C. on June 7, returning that same evening. A non-profit group is being sought to take over flight plans following the inaugural flight.

A meeting is being scheduled for all those interested in taking part in the flight, flying as a guardian to a vet, or joining efforts to create an Honor Flight program in the region.

Kuligowski, who has spent much of the past six months talking to local leaders and politicians to gather support for the effort, is looking forward to the ride.

“I’m all gung ho for it,” Harry told me.

Mellon, who has been working behind the scenes to bring the event together said “Hopefully, we may enable the vets to come together one last time at the memorial in Washington, for just one day to reflect and bring closure to a period in their lives that can’t possibly be shared by anyone who wasn’t there.

“It is my sincere hope that once we complete this First Inaugural Flight, there will be many more non-profit and veteran organizations that will step forward and take over the reins to continue the future flights necessary until all of these veterans have had the opportunity to be honored in this very special way,” she said.

Veterans seeking to register for the Honor Flight should visit www.honorflight.org. For additional information contact Mellon at 236-2092.



—Michele DeLuca

        

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