Two Cats and Two Male Cops, okay Three Cats but Still Two Cops
When I was in my last week of Field Training, I was riding with a fill-in Field Trainer, meaning he had not trained me before. The guy who trained me, that I should have been with, was on vacation.
This guy was a lateral from the Los Angeles area and had done his time. He was also a Marine.
But he was ALSO one of my favorite car partners because he was so chill. When the week started, he said I should relax. He had no concerns about me and wasn't going to "FTO" me that week. I mean, if I had screwed up, he would have addressed it, but he just treated me like another officer, not a trainee.
It was the wee hours of the night on graveyard shift and I was driving around town, looking for mischief when this chill guy next to me, suddenly says with urgency, "Stop the car!"
What? Okayyyyy ... I stop in the middle of a fairly busy roadway that happened to be deserted due to the time of day.
He was in plainclothes and I see him take off his leather bomber jacket as he gets out of the car.
What is happening???
The next thing I know, he is getting back in the car with a black cat wrapped up in his jacket. He tells me to drive to the veterinary clinic that helps us out in emergencies. It's not all that close.
As I drive, I am forbidden by policy to activate any emergency equipment. But I am not going to tell you that I didn't drive like there was an emergency.
The kitty was clearly injured and unable to move. The kitty cried the whole trip.
And so did my FTO. Not cried but just tears streaming down this MAN's face.
If I had been single, I would have immediately fallen in love, lol. This tough, experienced, cynical street cop, heart breaking next to me over a cat. Come on, now.
I don't know what happened to that cat. But I do know if anybody ever said anything bad about that cop, to this day, I would likely punch them in the face. I worked with him after that. He doesn't sweat the small stuff and he has worked graveyards my entire career. I haven't seen him in a long time, but he's still around. I hope his life is full of good stuff. He deserves it.
Fast forward to my last couple of weeks on patrol (I am no longer pushing a patrol car and work in a different capacity now). I was riding with an academy classmate of mine who is one of my favorite humans. I don't think he really understands that, but it's true.
Which is why I was pretty disappointed with him in this situation. Seeing someone you actually love not have the same passion as you do for animals is not fun.
But he didn't do anything wrong or mean or anything. He just didn't feel it like I did. He is an excellent officer with great integrity.
We had a busy day. There was a call pending of an injured cat for what seemed to me to be a REALLY long time. It was killing me, but we were tied up. When we finally cleared, I told him we had to take that call. It was driving me crazy.
He knows I love cats, so he indulged me although it wasn't our area.
We got to the scene and some pedestrians said the cat had been hit by a car and was in distress.
It was.
I carefully picked it up and placed it on my lap in the car.
My partner drove us to the same animal E.R. Slowly. Obeying every traffic law. While this poor animal lay suffering in my lap. It was all I could do to contain my anxiety and not scream at him to Hurry the EFF up! But he was sticking to protocol and I wasn't going to ask him to risk anything he didn't want to risk. Unfortunately, that is the way of policing. If we drove recklessly and got in a wreck with a human, we both would likely have been in HUGE trouble and at that point I had (WE had) been on the job for about ten years, so my thought process was much different than in my rookie days.
We got to the E.R. and I delivered the kitty. I called the next day. His injuries were massive and severe. They ended his pain and his life mercifully.
I'm tearing up about it again as I type this. I haaaaate seeing animals suffer.
Okay, so the third cat story just involves me. The ironic part is it occurred in nearly exactly the same spot as the first story.
It was graveyards and there I was driving up that same street that is busy during the day but was deserted that time of night and I see something weird in the street. I'm not quite registering what it is but it's moving.
I stopped the car and got out and approached and realized ... it was a kitten with a soup can on its head, covering the majority of it's body.
I am not a very fast thinker so I just reached down and popped that soup can off that baby's head.
POOF! A flash of white and orange fluff and the kitten disappeared into the night, terrified.
Awwwww, sad, sad. I hope he is still out there somewhere, hopefully safer than he was that night. Poor little thing.
In retrospect, I should have done something more to 1) stop it from running across traffic lanes and 2) contain it so I could get it to the shelter. But, I didn't think it out well and all I know is he was okay the last time I saw him.
Or her. All of my cats are boys so I tend to refer to all cats as such.
This guy was a lateral from the Los Angeles area and had done his time. He was also a Marine.
But he was ALSO one of my favorite car partners because he was so chill. When the week started, he said I should relax. He had no concerns about me and wasn't going to "FTO" me that week. I mean, if I had screwed up, he would have addressed it, but he just treated me like another officer, not a trainee.
It was the wee hours of the night on graveyard shift and I was driving around town, looking for mischief when this chill guy next to me, suddenly says with urgency, "Stop the car!"
What? Okayyyyy ... I stop in the middle of a fairly busy roadway that happened to be deserted due to the time of day.
He was in plainclothes and I see him take off his leather bomber jacket as he gets out of the car.
What is happening???
The next thing I know, he is getting back in the car with a black cat wrapped up in his jacket. He tells me to drive to the veterinary clinic that helps us out in emergencies. It's not all that close.
As I drive, I am forbidden by policy to activate any emergency equipment. But I am not going to tell you that I didn't drive like there was an emergency.
The kitty was clearly injured and unable to move. The kitty cried the whole trip.
And so did my FTO. Not cried but just tears streaming down this MAN's face.
If I had been single, I would have immediately fallen in love, lol. This tough, experienced, cynical street cop, heart breaking next to me over a cat. Come on, now.
I don't know what happened to that cat. But I do know if anybody ever said anything bad about that cop, to this day, I would likely punch them in the face. I worked with him after that. He doesn't sweat the small stuff and he has worked graveyards my entire career. I haven't seen him in a long time, but he's still around. I hope his life is full of good stuff. He deserves it.
Fast forward to my last couple of weeks on patrol (I am no longer pushing a patrol car and work in a different capacity now). I was riding with an academy classmate of mine who is one of my favorite humans. I don't think he really understands that, but it's true.
Which is why I was pretty disappointed with him in this situation. Seeing someone you actually love not have the same passion as you do for animals is not fun.
But he didn't do anything wrong or mean or anything. He just didn't feel it like I did. He is an excellent officer with great integrity.
We had a busy day. There was a call pending of an injured cat for what seemed to me to be a REALLY long time. It was killing me, but we were tied up. When we finally cleared, I told him we had to take that call. It was driving me crazy.
He knows I love cats, so he indulged me although it wasn't our area.
We got to the scene and some pedestrians said the cat had been hit by a car and was in distress.
It was.
I carefully picked it up and placed it on my lap in the car.
My partner drove us to the same animal E.R. Slowly. Obeying every traffic law. While this poor animal lay suffering in my lap. It was all I could do to contain my anxiety and not scream at him to Hurry the EFF up! But he was sticking to protocol and I wasn't going to ask him to risk anything he didn't want to risk. Unfortunately, that is the way of policing. If we drove recklessly and got in a wreck with a human, we both would likely have been in HUGE trouble and at that point I had (WE had) been on the job for about ten years, so my thought process was much different than in my rookie days.
We got to the E.R. and I delivered the kitty. I called the next day. His injuries were massive and severe. They ended his pain and his life mercifully.
I'm tearing up about it again as I type this. I haaaaate seeing animals suffer.
Okay, so the third cat story just involves me. The ironic part is it occurred in nearly exactly the same spot as the first story.
It was graveyards and there I was driving up that same street that is busy during the day but was deserted that time of night and I see something weird in the street. I'm not quite registering what it is but it's moving.
I stopped the car and got out and approached and realized ... it was a kitten with a soup can on its head, covering the majority of it's body.
I am not a very fast thinker so I just reached down and popped that soup can off that baby's head.
POOF! A flash of white and orange fluff and the kitten disappeared into the night, terrified.
Awwwww, sad, sad. I hope he is still out there somewhere, hopefully safer than he was that night. Poor little thing.
In retrospect, I should have done something more to 1) stop it from running across traffic lanes and 2) contain it so I could get it to the shelter. But, I didn't think it out well and all I know is he was okay the last time I saw him.
Or her. All of my cats are boys so I tend to refer to all cats as such.
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