New York 9/11 firefighter and a cat named Cinders
Louie Tuttle is very glad he followed the signs on Sept. 11 this year. The signs volunteers have put along the road to lead people to the Best Friends Pahrump cat rescue led Louie right to a wise guy cat who fits him perfectly.
A retired New York firefighter who was at Ground Zero on Sept. 11, 2001, Louie had moved to Pahrump, outside of Las Vegas, a few months ago.
"My mother and grandmother have lived here for seven, eight years. I've got aches and pains and I noticed I don't hurt in Pahrump because there's no humidity. So I moved here about four months ago.”
And Louie had it in the back of his mind that he’d like to adopt a cat. But on Tuesday, like every anniversary of Sept. 11, Louie called his department in New York to touch base with his brothers on Engine 3, and then looked for something to take his mind off of it.
“You try to take your mind off it, you know? I lost a close friend at Ground Zero, Danny. That day everybody was your brother and your sister and you lost them. It was emotionally overwhelming but you had a job to do.
"So I was just driving around today, and I saw the sign on Highway 160 for Best Friends. I had heard that you guys came in and were helping the cats. All I was going to do was check it out, I wasn’t thinking of taking cat home.
“Then I got to that sign with the legs coming out of the chicken egg (the world famous brothel The Chicken Ranch) and I thought, 'I don't want to go there.' But I saw the next sign for Best Friends and followed that. Then I saw the trucks with Best Friends [logos] and hit the brakes hard.
"And I walked up and got to meet everybody at the rescue, saw the volunteers and thought it was fabulous, what they were doing. And I thought maybe I could volunteer too and went inside to look.
"I walked into one of the little houses. This little black paw came out and hooked my hand, and this black cat started giving me bites, not hard. Then he started following me around.
“They told me he's the wise guy, knocking over water bowls and such. I liked that 'cause I'm something like that. Then when I was going to leave the building, he hurried over to door, sat down and looked up at me. The way he looked at me, I just said, 'I have to take him.’ With his attitude, I couldn't let him go.
"So when I was filling out the paperwork and talking to Mckenzie, she said, "It's 9/11 and you are getting a cat named Cinders.
"My jaw dropped."
After the paperwork was done, Louie hurried to get food, toys, and a litterbox so he'd be ready when Cinders arrived.
"Ed and Shelley got to my place with Cinders and from the minute they opened the carrier, Cinders took over the house. He walked out of the carrier with his chest puffed out, looked left, looked right. He jumped up on my bed.
“Then he jumped on the kitchen counter and I said, 'Hey don't do that' and he started dancing, started playing. Then he jumped off the kitchen counter and jumped up on the dining room table and knocked a lot of papers off, I loved it. He acted like he's been here before.
"I called Mom and told her, ‘when you get home, there will be a new member of the family, Cinders Tuttle.’ This will probably ruin her vacation because now she'll want to hurry home so she can see the cat.
"I'm glad I followed the signs today."