CLINTON — The ferry delay was minor compared to the furry urgency.
Washington State Ferries workers are trained for any water rescue that comes their way. This time, it was a kitten clinging to an offshore piling in Clinton.
The kitty had been spotted at the dock’s wing wall last week at the Clinton terminal by the ferry crew heading to Mukilteo on the two-boat run.
Clinton workers launched a rescue boat and retrieved the shivering gray kitten. They created a makeshift cat bed and took the kitten to the South Whidbey Animal Clinic for a checkup.
Coxwain Ryan Jones kept a tight hold on the rescued kitten from the emergency vessel that was launched. (Photo provided by Washington State Ferries)
The South Whidbey Record reported that Eric Patrin, veterinarian and owner of the clinic, said the kitten arrived with a temperature below 90 degrees, below the 101 degrees that is considered normal for a cat. The kitten’s temperature was brought up slowly with a warm water bath that also cleansed the diesel and grease from the boat.
A ferry worker adopted the kitten, a 4-month-old male with no microchip, and named it Buoy.
It is unknown how the kitten ended up trying to catch a ferry.
This rescue happened around 8:30 a.m.
The rescued kitten. (Photo provided)
“There were only minor delays,” Justin Fujioka, a Washington State Ferries spokesperson, said by email. “Both vessels on the route were about 15 minutes behind schedule by midday.”
Crews have rescued a number of stranded passengers and pretty much seen it all.
In 2017, a 200-pound pig named Frieda escaped from a truck on a San Juan Island ferry and swam to shore on Orcas Island.
“We are not aware of a cat rescue before,” Fujioka said.
But it happens.
A Greece news outlet reported a dramatic sea rescue of a kitten struggling in Attica in July. A ferry crew member heard that kitten desperately crying for help and “jumped into the water to rescue the little soul … holding it above the surface of the sea so that it would not drink water, while the kitten kept meowing its heart out,” according to keeptalkinggreece.com.
Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterbrown.
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