By Stephanie KostopoulosStaff Writer
Hofstra has been experiencing very exciting things in the past month: big events, big people. But sometimes the greatest events are the smallest and most impacting. Remember a few weeks back, during that huge rainstorm? While everyone was running away from the torrential rain, two girls ran into it. Freshmen Ashley Carter and Danielle McClure were walking back to their dorms from Bits and Bytes when a seemingly-random girl approached them saying “Do you like cats?”
The two girls answered with an apprehensive “Umm… Yeah?!” Confused, the situation became clearer when the girl told them there were kittens drowning and she needed their assistance trying to rescue them.
The mystery girl strangely disappeared into the rain. Ashley and Danielle ran to the back side of Memorial Hall behind the ramp, where the scene of the rescue was. The first floor windows that touch the ground and have the metal surroundings filled up with water and was incapable of draining the excess water properly. That’s where the girls heard the whining of the struggling cats.
Immediately, they got to work. Danielle took off her Ugg boots and jumped right in. She discovered that there were a total of four kittens trapped. Three were still alive and fighting for life, and the last one was unfortunately already dead. The three surviving kittens had their eyes closed and were trying to swim their way to safety before their rescue. Danielle retrieved each kitten one at a time. She and Ashley estimated the age of the kittens to be no more than two weeks old – just babies.
Much to their satisfaction, the girls received additional help with their rescue mission. An administrator saw that they needed help, so she went back inside the building and brought them paper towels and a mail carrier crate. They dried of the crying kittens and placed them comfortably in their makeshift bed. Finally, the mystery girl returned and brought back another administrator. It turns out the mystery girl was allergic to cats and needed someone to do the job, but still wanted to help however she could. She was lucky to have to Ashley and Danielle nearby. The other administrator called Public Safety and they came about 20 minutes after he had called. The girls were promised that the kittens would be properly taken care of. It began raining heavily again once the kittens were gone and safe.
Concerning the experience, Danielle said “We were shocked. It all happened so fast. We didn’t think about it until after. We reacted on instinct.” However, she’s no stranger to rescuing kittens. Her family fostered 15 batches of kittens in the past, so naturally her heart went out to them. She and Ashley recall this story with such a sense of humility, the true essence of great heroes. Hofstra heroes, they are among us. Who knows, maybe you are one, too. Next time there’s another big rainstorm, be cautious of more drowning kittens or other unusual activity.