On Halloween night, a cat was struck on Route 211 near Middletown, New York. While pulling into a strip mall, Joe Valentin saw the animal lying in the roadway and initially thought it was dead. As he was about to leave, the cat sprang to its feet and darted across the road in front of his vehicle.
“I turned around, stopped, she was still breathing. She still had some fight in her. She hissed at me a couple of times,” Valentin recalled.
Valentin immediately turned his car around, retrieved the cat and took it home. The next day he drove the animal to local veterinarian Dr. Scott Quick, covering the cost of treatment himself. Dr. Quick reported that the cat suffered a laceration on the lower right side of its jaw, extensive bruising, and a large laceration on the left side of its body.
“She had a laceration by her jaw on the lower right side. Other than that, it was just a lot of bruising. And then there was a large laceration on the left side of the body also,” Dr. Quick said.
Valentin explained that his compassion stemmed from a lifelong love of animals. His mother runs Catskill Animal Rescue Shelter, and two of his own pets died earlier this year, leaving him with a “soft spot” for injured animals.
“It kind of gave me a bit of a soft spot because I was like, I’ve seen so much horrible things this year,” he said.
While Summer recovered, Valentin’s wife—who works as a veterinary technician— fed the cat with a syringe. Valentin also posted details and a photo of the cat on social media, hoping the owner would recognize the animal.
The owner later identified Summer by a distinctive orange spot on her head and came forward to claim her. The reunion was celebrated by both the family and the rescuers.
Dr. Quick praised Valentin’s quick action, noting that many drivers stop for larger wildlife but often ignore smaller animals like cats. “More people stop for deer honestly than for if they hit a cat. That’s the biggest thing is that someone stopped and brought him and took care of him,” he said.
Valentin downplayed his role, describing his response as natural rather than heroic. “It wasn’t something that I feel like I went above and beyond. It was just, you know, it felt natural,” he said.
Summer is expected to make a full recovery, and her family expressed gratitude for the community’s compassion and the swift medical care she received.
Original reporting: Brookhaven News – ABC7 New York — read the source article.
