While traveling on an Alaska railroad, familiar noises assailed Portia Duke’s ear: the squeaking, stressed brakes, the whistle sounding off, and the doors opening and closing.
But having stopped in Willow on the way from Denali to Whittier, a totally unexpected tune perked the passenger up—a cat, mewling outside the window.
Looking down, Duke saw there was a miniscule kitten scrambling around the rocks between the tracks, seemingly too small to climb over the concrete and onto the platform.
She tried to get off the train to help the animal, but realized if she did she would miss the train.
As the soundtrack of the train resumed, it drowned out the lost kitten’s cries, but not the voice in Duke’s heart telling her she simply must return to look for it.
Speaking with KTUU/Gray News, Duke said she dreamed about the kitten all night and returned the next day, just as she promised, with her boyfriend in tow to look for it.
“‘We have to go and either find her or we don’t,'” Duke said in an interview, explaining her reasoning. “Then we can tell ourselves that maybe her mom came back, but at least we’ll have an answer.”
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“There was really just no thought in our heads that she would actually still be there. But there she was, still meowing.”
The kitten was taken to the veterinarian, who said she was one-month old and dehydrated, but otherwise healthy.
Duke reckons that 5 trains would have passed over those tracks in the time she was trapped within, a harrowing image.
Though the couple haven’t decided whether to keep her or not, they named her Willow after the station, and added that some of the train staff offered to help find a home for her.
WATCH the story below from KTUU…
MEOW About This Responsible Commuter’s Rescue Of Willow At Willow…