Photo, Mark Reis/The Gazette
A Good Samaritan passing by entered a burning house before firefighters arrived and saved the life of a kitten trapped inside.
Andrew Davenport was driving home from running errands in Colorado Springs, CO Monday morning when he spotted thick, black smoke coming from a residential neighborhood in Security, a community between that city and his home in Fountain.
Davenport deviated from his route and pulled up to the burning home on Daredevil Drive before firefighters arrived, then crawled in through an unlocked sliding glass door on his hands and knees to see if anyone was inside and needed help.
Inside was a kitten who had already lost consciousness. A Rottweiler dog was home with the kitten, and was able to get out safely on his own.
“Right away I saw the cat on the floor, limp and unresponsive,” he said.
“I pulled the kitten out and all I could think to do was to give it CPR, so I put my mouth over its nose and mouth and gave it several puffs of air,” Davenport said. “Then I did a couple of chest compressions, the way I would with a baby. Then it started moving again.”
“Pretty soon she opened her eyes and came around.”
“I did it hoping that someone would do the same for us, pets are like family members and I love animals,” Davenport said.
“I met [homeowners Scott and Melanie Hess] later and they thanked me for helping out, but it’s really no big deal,” Davenport said. “It’s bad enough when someone loses their home this close to Christmas, but pets are members of the family. You can replace a home, but not a loved one.”
Davenport is a correctional officer at a penitentiary. He told a reporter that he didn’t think about the risk to himself when he entered the home, and summed up his reasoning by saying: “I did it because those people needed help.”
Read the full story in The Gazette
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