As I rode with my mom to meet my grandparents for our usual Wednesday-night-dinners, a peculiar thing took place.

We pulled into the stopped up left-hand turn lane when a small, dark shape skittered across the lane in front of us. My mom gasped as we watched a little kitten try to cross two lanes of 50 mile an hour traffic. Without waiting for a full stop and ignoring the fact that I was in heels, I jumped out of the car as the tiny thing froze halfway through the road, barely out of the way of a passing SUV. Sparing the traffic a quick glance, I ran over to it. Closer now, I guessed that it was about 8 weeks old and absolutely terrified. As I reached down to pick it up, the kitten twisted around, giving the fiercest yowl it could, and latched its tiny razor teeth into my finger. With my pointer finger occupied, I still managed to use the rest of my hand to grab the scruff of its neck and hurry to the other side of the street (Luckily, it was a straight road and the oncoming traffic did see me and slowed down.) In some last-ditch attempts at freedom, the kitten tried scratching and peeing on me but I knew how to avoid it and only came away with a torn up finger bleeding all down my hand. I tossed it into the bushes outside of the store by the street where it proceeded to climb the outer wall of said store.

Now my original plan was to take the kitten back to the car with me and convince my mom to let me take it to a animal shelter/hospital, but seeing it's immediate and painful reaction made me think. "This cat is feral. It belongs out here." The side of the street I crossed it to was one with a big, higher-end neighborhood with a couple of parks and a large wooded area where I hope it will live as a successful little stray versus the subdisivion with a high school and high speed, heavy flow traffic it came from.

Now before anyone tells me: I know that strays/wild animals are dangerous and shouldn't be approached. I get it and I give all animals a great deal of respect 98% of the time except when I'm helping turtles cross the road in my subdivision And even then, I cover my hands with a towel of something that I keep in the car. But this is Florida guys! We've got a lot of animals down here! Besides, I'm beyond up to date on my vaccinations and immediately washed and bandaged my finger and applied antibiotic as soon as I got home.

Point is: When I got back in the car, my 5-year-old sister wanted to give me all her money saying that I was was just like Batman because I saved a tiny kitty.



DEAL WITH THAT!