"I knew that it was in distress, and I had to try to find it."
Safety Training Administrator Leigh Herald’s day job is coaching Team Chatham members on how to do all the things they have to do in the safest possible way. She’s taught Driver Safety and Work Zone Safety and CPR classes so often, she can probably teach them in her sleep. As much as she knows about safety protocols, however, the hallmark of her work is how much she genuinely cares about the safety of others.
It is also the reason that – even though headed onto the highway with a destination and a deadline to get there – she recognized a need and she cared enough to stop and do something.
Miraculously, as her car approached I-16, Leigh heard the call of an animal in distress. She rolled her window down, listened again . . . then turned around and headed for a nearby demolition site. “I said, that sounds like a cat! I knew that it was trapped somewhere in that pile of rubble where a building had been demolished.” She weighed the situation and knew that she could never find the kitten trapped in the debris within the time she had before her appointment, but she cared too much about the unseen creature to give up. “I posted on Savannah Connection’s page and asked anyone nearby to go try to help find it. Their response was wonderful! And I called a Team Chatham friend working at the Emergency Operations Center and she said, yes, it’s an animal in distress, so she called Animal Services to help. Their officer got to the site and was able to free the
little guy uninjured!”
It was Officer Mickey Regula who got the call from Animal Services Director, Dr. Jake Harper. He arrived at the site where several civilian Good Samaritans were carefully venturing into the site, searching for the frightened animal that had gone silent. Then one of the searchers softly said, “meow?”, and the kitten answered with one more hopeful “MEOW!” which allowed Officer Regula to locate him. “I had to make the decision: let’s just see if we can do this safely, okay?”
Leigh would be gratified to hear that safety was the word of the day, and Officer Regula was grateful to be able to make his way up the mountain of rubble to shift the collapsed structure and free the captive kitten without injury.
The eyes and ears of community members are some of the best tools that Animal Services Officers have in their efforts to protect our community’s animals. Dr. Harper relates that in so many cases, by the time Animal Services has been alerted to situations of animals in distress or neglect, someone will mention that there has been awareness of the situation for some time. Often there seems to be a reluctance to say anything, hoping to avoid trouble. Awareness, caring, and the willingness to say something, however, can make all the difference in helping Animal Services get to needy animals in time to help them.
Chatham County Animal Services asks this of everyone in our community: if you hear something or see something, say something. When Leigh Herald thought she heard something as she was driving, she cared enough to check and to take action. It wasn't his first cry for help, and hers wasn't the first car to drive by the demolition site where a kitten was trapped in the rubble. She was the first to stop, though, and the first to call for support, and that saved one furry little life.
"I said that sounds like a cat! I knew that it was trapped somewhere in that pile of rubble where a building had been demolished. There was no way I could keep going; I had to turn back and try to find it."
-- Leigh Herald, Occupational Safety Training Administrator
“I work personally very hard on trying to instill that we’re not The Dog Catcher. We’re here to help you in whatever way we might be able to. The best thing is being able to reunite people with their animals when they lose them. I have to reiterate this: PLEASE microchip your animals. That’s how we get them home to you!”
-- Mickey Regula, Animal Services Officer
Read More In This Series : Snapshots Of Service
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