Paw patrol to the rescue! Highways officers save kitten spotted on the M1 in Rotherham

TRAFFIC officers on “paw patrol” saved a newborn kitten from losing one of its nine lives after it strayed onto the motorway.

National Highways traffic officers patrolling the M1 in South Yorkshire responded to calls about a kitten being sighted on the road near junction 32 at Thurcroft at about 9pm.

Emma Newell, who was alerted to the feline intruder, said: “We had a few reports throughout the shift of a cat on the M1.

“We did some run-throughs with different teams but none of us came across it.

 “We all thought there must be a cat there because of all the reports there had been.

 “My colleague was driving through that way at junction 32 of the M1 and she came across it. 

“We put on a rolling roadblock so she could pick the kitten up.”

 One of the single-crewed traffic officers handed the kitten over to Emma so that she and her colleague could make their way to Morrisons off junction 1 of the M18 where they assembled a makeshift home for the kitten. 

 Emma, who has been a traffic officer with National Highways for six months and lives in Swinton, said: “The other crews were single-crewed so I held him and he sat quietly on my lap until we got him to Morrisons car park.

 “We got a little cardboard box while we were sorting out what vets we could take him to.”

After last Thursday’s rescue, Emma took her new friend to Springfield Vets in Rotherham where he spent the night with a roof over his head. 

She added: “We don’t know if he had been dumped or if he was feral, but we couldn’t find any other cats with him.

 “I think if we hadn’t have found him, he wouldn’t have been around the next day because the rain on the Friday was torrential.”