Parkway Cat: Westfield Man Adopts Kitten Found by Side of Garden State Parkway

Colonia, NJ - On Thursday, March 3, Tom Cassidy was driving for work, traveling north up the Garden State Parkway. He owns an office supply business, and had left his warehouse in Cranbury to make a delivery in Irvington.

Needing gas, he pulled over at a rest stop just before the Clark exit, two gas stations right off the highway. That's when he noticed a commotion in the parking lot: A woman with her German Shepherd, and an NJ State Trooper, patrol lights flashing, standing over a very small, very bloody kitten.

"He was the tiniest little cat and he was all bloody," said Cassidy, 74, of Westfield. "His face was bloody and the joints in his two back legs were bloody. But it was the strangest thing: He was so affectionate!"

The small kitten, only about 4-5 months old, it was later determined, was able to walk and kept rubbing against the State Trooper's boots and then against Cassidy's shoes.

The woman explained to him that she had pulled over at the rest stop to let her dog relieve himself, and that's when the Shepherd pulled her into a wooded area just yards off the Parkway. There, they found the little kitten. At the time, everyone assumed the worst: Because the animal's back legs were bloodied, Cassidy suspects someone might have thrown him out of a car. His jaw was likely broken, too.

Woodbridge Animal Shelter was called and the cat was scanned for broken bones and injuries. Miraculously, he had none, said Heather Campione, manager of the Woodbridge Animal Shelter.

"I was sure his jaw was going to be broken, too," said Campione. "But, we took X-rays and remarkably, all he needed was a few days to recuperate."

Campione does think a tire might have sideswiped the cat in the face. Because the kitten was neutered when he was found, Campione thinks he was someone's pet, who let him in and out of the house — just another reason not to have indoor/outdoor cats, she said. Woodbridge Animal Shelter posted signs in the area saying a male kitten had been found, but nobody claimed him, she said.

Cassidy said he hopes her story is the correct one, and not that someone dropped him out of a moving car.

"Before I left the rest stop that day, the woman turned to me and said, 'Would you please adopt this cat? I have German Shepherds and I can't.' I thought about it for one minute and then said, 'Yes, I'll do it,'" he said.

Now, Chuck, as he has been named, has been living with Tom and his wife, Gail, in their Westfield home for the past three days.

"He's perfect. He's as healthy as the dickens," he said. "How he ended up on that Parkway we'll never know. I cannot believe he survived."