Woman Who Reported Crime Gives Kitten Hope for Better Life

LAKELAND | - Any cat owner knows there is no snooze button for a hungry cat, and a Lakeland woman now knows that there is no mute button for a scared kitten.

Denise Pribe and Sean Reynolds called 911 when they saw three kittens being tossed out of a pickup the morning of July 23 while driving along Rockridge Road.

One was run over by the truck it was thrown out of, one was retrieved by officials and the other ran off.

It turns out, Pribe said, that the third kitten was hiding under a mobile home along the road where it was discarded.

When the rain got bad Friday night, the kitten's yowls got louder and eventually the homeowners went outside to retrieve it.

The residents contacted Reynolds because they know him and knew he was involved in the original incident.

He, in turn, contacted Pribe.

Pribe said she recognized the kitten almost immediately because she remembered seeing it dart around in the road after being thrown from the truck.

Now Hope, the kitten, has a home with Pribe.

'She's got an appetite like you would not believe,' Pribe said.

She said she has had Hope since Friday night and plans to keep her.

Pribe said she notified police about the kitten and was told that she would need to notify the State Attorney's Office if she decided to give it away.

David Carl Arthur, 67, was arrested on charges of animal cruelty after police caught up with him at Tractor Farm Supply store on U.S. 98 North on July 23. He

has been released from the Polk County Jail on $3,000 bail.

Hope, so named because of the dangerous experience she survived, has quickly made herself comfortable in Pribe's home.

She joined a household with two dogs ó a 6-year-old Jack Russel terrier named Petey and a 14-year-old cocker spaniel named Sidney.

Although Sidney has gone deaf, Pribe said, Petey quickly took to Hope.

When she's not jumping off the bed and onto his back, the two of them take naps together.

'Maybe she doesn't know she's a cat,' she said about the friendship developing between her two pets.

Pribe estimated that Hope is only 5 or 6 weeks old, and said she is as lively and playful as any other kitten.

'She's the queen of the house,' she said. 'It's like she's always been here.'