This really happened! A 22 year old cat loving zombie chased an out-of-place cat through Manhattan traffic and rushed it to the vet, where a microchip scan identified and located the grateful guardian, also a devoted cat lover.
Jeremy Zelkowitz dresses as a zombie and prowls the streets near Times Square to promote a haunted house attraction on 8th Avenue called Times Scare. The self professed animal lover was working West 42nd St Saturday night at 1am when he saw a terrified black and white cat darting into traffic. The cat tried running into several businesses but was unable to get inside. Jeremy chased the cat down – to startled looks from tourists – then hopped in a cab with the cat and took it to the Blue Pearl emergency hospital.
“He let me pick it up and everything like that,” Jeffrey said. “It was very friendly, it just seemed really scared, he was a little jumpy.”
Jeffrey is quoted in the Daily News saying, “I told them right away, ‘Look, I’m not crazy. I work at the haunted house.’” in order to get the veterinary staff at Blue Pearl to take him seriously.
Blue Pearl staff did a microchip scan and identified the frightened cat as Disaster, who had been missing from his Long Island home for two years. Disaster’s guardian is New York City Police Officer Jimmy Helliesen.
“When our staff initially called Mr. Helliesen, he couldn’t believe it and thought we were playing a practical joke on him,” said Steve Baker, hospital administrator of BluePearl in Manhattan. “He said Disaster had gone missing two years ago.”
According to Officer Helliesen, he fosters stray cats he finds in his work in the 79th Precinct in Beford-Stuyvesant and finds the cats suitable homes. Disaster was one of the first cats he took in, but about two years ago, the cat managed to claw through window screen and got loose. Disaster has been reunited with Jimmy Helliesen and is back home in Long Island.
It is not known how Disaster he got to Manhattan, what his life has been like, and whether he has been in someone’s care for the past two years.
I love zombies and now I love them even more. Great job and thanks for the big heart to him and the officer. 🙂 I love men who help animals, especially cats.