Austrian Officials Close a Busy Alpine Tunnel in Order to Rescue a Kitten That Was Cruelly Abandoned by Motorist

Lucky

"How we behave toward cats below determines our status in heaven."
-- Robert A. Heinlein

A ten-week-old kitten who was cruelly abandoned to fend for herself in a busy tunnel in the Alps was saved from an almost sure and certain death underneath the wheels of some speeding motorist when Austrian officials shut down the tunnel not once, but twice, in order to rescue her.

The black female with red spots was first sighted by motorists August 6th in the five-kilometer-long Roppen Tunnel in the Tirol region of western Austria. The Autobahnpolizei were notified but they were unable to locate the kitten.

The young cat was spotted again the next day during the morning rush hour at around 7:15 a.m. and the busy tunnel was closed in both directions so that officials could make a thorough search for her. The search was ultimately unsuccessful and the tunnel was later reopened.

Later the same day at around 2 p.m. a Streifenfahrer der Autobahnmeisterei spotted the kitten on a median and the tunnel was shut down once again. This time around officials were able to capture the feline and bring her out to safety.

In addition to being frightened out of her wits, the poor kitten was covered in soot and starved half to death. She was promptly turned over to the custody of Ms. Manuela Prantl of the Oberland Cattery in the village of Wenns im Pitztal who has christened her Lucky.

"She may have been deliberately abandoned because she was right in the middle of it," Prantl told Der Spiegel on August 9th. (See 'Lucky' the Kitten Causes Tunnel Closure.") "She would have had to walk two and a half kilometers in each direction to get out."

The Roppen Tunnel

The Katzenstation will hold on to Lucky for a week to see if her previous owner wants her back. Not only is this highly unlikely but he or she would have a lot of explaining to do if they showed up and tried to reclaim her.

"She is very friendly and I don't think we'll have trouble finding a home for her," Prantl predicted. In fact, the cattery has already received a call from a lady in Innsbruck who wants to adopt Lucky.

Lucky is certainly an apt name for the kitten because it is truly a miracle that she survived the better part of two days in the busy tunnel. Operators of the tunnel are to be commended for not only caring about cats but more importantly for their willingness to inconvenience motorists by shutting down the tunnel in order to mount a rescue operation.

Lucky can also be thankful that she is an Austrian as opposed to an American cat. It is highly unlikely that officials in America would close down any stretch of roadway in order to save an animal. Moreover, motorists in this country get an adrenalin rush out of running down small animals.

If there is any truth in Robert A. Heinlein's admonition that "How we behave toward cats determines out status in heaven," then the operators of Roppen Tunnel should be in pretty good stead in the hereafter. An entirely different fate awaits the person or persons who dumped Lucky in the tunnel.

According to Faith Resnick, "People that hate cats, will come back as mice in their next life."

Photos: Tierschutzverein fur Tirol (Lucky) and www.italproof.com (the Roppen Tunnel).