Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Cat story lands with a solid thud

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Brooks Peterson

Monday, May 21, 2001
Cat story lands with a solid thud

I hope you were all paying attention to your local newspaper last week. You should do so at all times, of course, but if you missed last Tuesday's paper, you missed one of those all too rare moments in journalism that are capable of bringing a tear to the crustiest reader's eye and warming the flinty heart of a city editor.
   (On the latter point: They do have hearts. You could look it up.)
   I refer to the Absolutely Great Animal Story, of which the saga of Thud the kitten was one of the best in recent memory, blending as it did high (literally) drama, low comedy, spectacular derring-do and, of course, a happy ending.
   Better still, the moment was captured beautifully by reporter Mary Moreno, who admirably managed the tight-rope act between slapstick and tear-jerking. And photographer George Gongora's group photo of Thud, firefighter Rudy Davila (who attempted to bring the kitten down from the Harbor Bridge) and Catalina "Katy" Davila, Thud's new owner (and daughter of Rudy) was a masterpiece of poignancy.
   But then you know all this if you saw and read the story. For the benefit of the luckless few who missed it, I'll sketch the broad outlines of the tale: By means unknown, the kitten found himself precariously perched on the Harbor Bridge Monday morning. Less than a month ago, there was a similar drama involving another high-altitude kitten, which ultimately let firefighters effect a rescue.
   How Thud got his name
   But not Thud: Even as his rescuers approached, the little guy opted for the 82nd Airborne solution, leaping into the void.
   The kitten, alas, had no parachute, and landed with the resounding "THUD" that gave him his name.
   The humans on the scene - would-be rescuers and onlookers alike - were aghast. But then . . .
   As Moreno reports, "The domestic longhair spat out gravel and was somewhat groggy at first." A visit to the vet resulted in a clean bill of health for the flyin' feline, whose only injury was a scrape on his nose. All that remained was the official naming ceremony and a trip to his new home.
   (I particularly cherished the bit about spitting out gravel: That's the quintessential feline reponse to an embarrassing situation. Cats hate being embarrassed, particularly in front of a big audience. Thud, casting about for a suitable response, reasserted his tough-cat credentials by hacking out a load of rocks. Just what you'd expect from a cat who's just been seriously embarrassed.)
   How're you not gonna love a story like that? A colleague reported having heard it on ABC Radio news, and I picked up on it on National Public Radio, which took time off from its usual heavy-duty stuff (the intensifying energy crisis, Alan Greenspan's latest oracular pronouncement . . . zzzz) to work Thud into the mix.
   Thud has in fact put this little town of ours on the map: "Corpus Christi, where morale is high, the reservoir's (almost) dry, and cats can fly." Consider the possibilities.
   Bubba's great saga
   Of course, as good as this story is, it probably won't have the legs, so to speak, of the daddy of all Caller-Times Absolutely Great Animal Stories: columnist Bill Walraven's riveting account of the abduction and disappearance of Bubba the Javelina back in the mid-'80s.
   That one went nationwide, big-time. All over the country, readers' attention was riveted on the saga of the javelina who was found abandoned in the wild by a local family, nursed to good health and welcomed as a cherished pet by his rescuers . . . only to be seized by state wildlife authorities and returned (no doubt to Bubba's bafflement) to the wild.
   The search went on for years, becoming the South Texas equivalent of one of those endless Icelandic sagas. As is not uncommon with such heroic tales, we are left to wonder whether one day, like Emiliano Zapata riding down from the hills on his white charger, Bubba will emerge from the brush to reclaim his place among us.
   Thud will have to go some to attain such mythic proportions, but don't be too quick to write him off. This is clearly one tough kitty.

Brooks Peterson can be reached by phone at 886-3772, or by e-mail at petersonb@caller.com

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