Photos via Faithful Friends at Facebook
A kitten found in tragic circumstanced in an abandoned apartment owes his life to the police officer who rescued him, and the animal welfare organization taking care of him now.
Humphrey kitten is named for Wilmington, Delaware police officer Daniel Humphrey, who found him when he responded to a possible intruder call.
When an upstairs tenant of a two-story Wilmington apartment building heard breaking glass downstairs, they contacted the landlord, who in turn had police check on the unoccupied downstairs unit.
Officer Humphrey responded to the call with fellow officers Rusty Reed and Cpl. Erik Meese. The officers found a broken window in the back of the building, and jimmied the lock of the downstairs unit after the upstairs tenant let them into the building.
The unoccupied apartment was cluttered with the former tenant’s belongings, garbage, and worse.
“Whoever left the apartment left personal belongings, an old mattress, clothes everywhere, left-over food that never got thrown away, garbage. There were roaches and fleas everywhere,” Humphrey is quoted saying at DelawareOnline “It was disgusting.”
Officer Humphrey also said there were empty heroin bags in the mess.
Five dead kittens were found in scattered locations throughout the apartment, with no sign of Mama cat.
“It was a pretty disturbing sight, especially if you’re an animal lover,” Officer Humphrey said.
Officer Humphrey heard a little sound as he and the others were about the leave following their search of the apartment.
“As I was turning around I heard a little kitten just meow,” he said.
Then, “We were just looking, looking, looking and couldn’t find it … searching and searching … hunting through rubbish and moving everything.”
The officers finally located the little kitten behind a door, sitting next to a shoe. The kitten was “smaller than the dead kittens, way underweight and just covered with fleas.”
Officer Humphrey took the kitten to Faithful Friends Animal Society. Faithful Friends named the kitten Humphrey after his rescuer and determined that he was about four weeks old.
The kitten was in very bad shape when he was rescued. Faithful Friends found that he was covered with fleas, his lips and tongue were white, and his body temperature was dangerously low. They immediately placed him on a heating pad to help with his temperature and began removing the fleas.
Faithful Friends took Humphrey to Longwood Veterinary Center, in Kennett Square, PA, where he was given a life-saving blood transfusion. Afterward, his condition was listed as garded, but he quickly showed signs of improvement.
Humphrey received round the clock care, going home with a Longwood vet tech, and is now in foster care with a Faithful Friends foster home.
The kitten is said to be doing well and becoming playful.
Faithful friends executive director Jane Pierantozzi said in the DelawareOnline article. “[Officer Humphrey is] a hero…. We’re very proud of him and the Wilmington Police Department for this.”
The officer humbly gives credit to the rescue organization and says he wants to see “Little Humphrey” get adopted into a good home.
The kitten will be made available for adoption when he’s about 12 weeks old and has had his neuter op and shots.
Officer Humphrey reported the case to the DESPCA, which has opened an animal cruelty investigation.
Faithful Friends first shared Humphrey’s story at Facebook on September 19.
