drpa cat saved
Delaware River Port Authority Officer Richie Ridolfi holds "Bridgette," a kitten he helped save last week after it was tossed from a car crossing the Walt Whitman Bridge. (Photo credit: Richie Ridolfi, Facebook)
(photo provided)
PHILADELPHIA -- A kitten tossed from a car crossing the Walt Whitman Bridge is well on the road to recovery after a Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) officer and Good Samaritan happened to be in the right place at the right time.
A motorist headed into New Jersey last week saw the incident and called police. At the same time, DRPA Officer Richie Ridolfi, who is approaching a decade's worth of service with the authority, was headed toward Philadelphia when he got a call from police dispatch.
Jean Finizio, the driver who called police, and Ridolfi, a South Philly resident and self-described "animal lover," worked together to save the cat, which "kept crawling further" underneath Finizio's car, Ridolfi said.
As traffic started to back up and efforts to grab the cat proved futile, Finizio drove "3 mph across the rest of the span" with another officer behind her to keep an eye on the kitten should it have decided to bail off the woman's car, Ridolfi said.
He and another officer eventually managed to free the black and white cat, which Ridolfi said "can't be more than 2 months old." There's no description of the vehicle the cat was thrown from and no video recording of the incident.
Ridolfi said he took the kitten -- aptly named "Bridgette," but could have been "Walt" if he was a boy -- to the vet last Friday and covered the cost of her first visit plus found a nurse at Pennsylvania Hospital who has stepped up and plans on keeping her.
"He's already bought her a bed and food bowls," Ridolfi said.
Greg Adomaitis may be reached at gadomaitis@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregAdomaitis. Find NJ.com on Facebook.