A couple were driving back and forth between New York and Massachusetts a few weeks ago and saw a cat on the median on I-91 near Hartford. They couldn’t stop thinking about the cat. Was it okay? How did it eat? Could he get to safety without being struck by a car? And then- on their next trip- they kept an eye out. They saw the cat again. He was skinny and wet. They could not keep going and pretend that they didn’t see him. So they pulled off the highway. The cat, probably terrified, scurried into a drainage culvert where they could not reach it. Unable to help, they drove back to New York making calls the whole way. One of the calls they made was to Protectors of Animals. Trying to save a possibly feral cat living in a culvert on a highway median is outside of what we normally do. But we couldn’t stop thinking about the cat either. So one of the members of our TNR team got the go ahead to try to trap the cat. It took a few days, but on Friday she was successful.

Meet Monkey. He is believed to be at least 13 years old, and he is oh so very grateful to be warm and fed. He is a very friendly cat, so we assume that he was likely dumped on the highway and was just trying to survive. Monkey was saved, but only because someone decided to act when they saw something wrong. Only because someone stepped up, instead of averting their eyes.

Monkey went home in January 2026 with a volunteer who fell in love with him immediately and who had been waiting patiently for him to be ready. Monkey has gone from virtually starving in the middle of the highway to a spoiled and much loved family member!

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