Poseidon, the kitten rescued after being thrown off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, with his new family. This tragic story has a happy ending!

A well-known local waterman played the hero, rescuing a kitten and providing a happy ending in one of two animal cruelty cases here last week.

Calvert “Butterball” Thompson Jr., who is safety boat captain for The Markmen Co. which is working on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, was on his way in to pick up an inspector near the end of the day Friday afternoon, March 17. He said he came in a little bit differently and saw what he first thought was a muskrat swimming around one of the concrete piers.

He moved his boat closer to see what it was and realized it was a small, black kitten.

“It was swimming for all it was worth and kind of over on its side. It was meowing at the top of its lungs. It was pretty much on its last legs,” he said.

Thompson tried to catch the kitten with his hands, but couldn’t get a hold of it, so he used a dip net to scoop the kitten from the chilly Bay waters about half a mile from the shore at Sandy Point State Park under the three-lane span of the bridge.

The kitten couldn’t have survived much longer in the cold water, he said. “I’m just glad I was there when I was, the right place at the right time.”

Both Thompson and the Chesapeake Cats and Dogs animal rescue group think someone tossed the kitten from a moving car as they crossed the bridge.

Read more here.

This tragic story has a happy ending! Poseidon has been adopted and has fully recovered from his trauma.

Please click here to help us save more lives like Poseidon’s!