In addition to roof shingles, tree branches and basketballs, tornadic winds can sometimes blow in a little serendipity.
On the afternoon of June 8, as a wicked storm bore down on the suburbs of Chicago, a cross country cyclist found a newborn kitten on the side of the road near Joliet.
He searched for its mother and possible siblings, to no avail. An out-of-towner, he was unfamiliar with the area. And as the skies darkened and tornadoes became a possibility, he put the feline in his bike carrier and rode on.
Then, through the gloom, he spied a large complex of buildings.
Inside the emergency department of Silver Cross Hospital that Monday, doctors and nurses were bracing for severe weather fallout, not something soft and cuddly.
Jill Pateros, director of emergency services, recalled the moment when “the charge nurse walked into my office hiding something in her shirt — never a good sign in an ER.”
In her 25 years as a Chicago-area emergency nurse, Pateros figured she had pretty much seen it all.
“But then a cat shows up at your door,” she said.
Nurses cleaned up the animal, made a bed of blankets and, for allergy prevention, stowed her far from the patient care area in a corner of Pateros’ office.
They gave her water through a syringe, Pateros said. And they named her Silver Bells, a nod to the hospital and the joy that suddenly overtook them.
One of the hospital social workers shifted her office over to Pateros’ workspace so she could keep an eye on the animal while workers tended to their tasks.
They let the cyclist, a young man from Florida who asked to remain anonymous, wait out the storm as they collected his story and gave him food and supplies for the next leg of his journey, Pateros said.
Meanwhile, interest in the unlikely patient was spreading.
Hospital ambassador Dan Pennick was working the lobby desk that afternoon. He didn’t see the traveler walk in with his precious cargo, but one of the volunteers who works with him did.
Pennick and Kathy Elgas had — yet again — bantered that very morning over his reticence to adopt another cat, with the volunteer emphasizing the overwhelming need and Pennick stressing his need to protect his heart from the inevitable pain of a cat eventually dying.
“I’ve had cats since I was about 5,” Pennick said. “My recent one, Molly, passed away about seven years ago.
“It took me a long time to get through that,” he said.
“I had been toying with the idea of getting another one but you know at the end you’re going to be hurt when they go,” he said.
So, he’d held off, despite the best efforts of Elgas, who also devotes time to NAWS Humane Society in New Lenox.
She had been a constant reminder of the overcrowded cat population, and a constant urger of how he could help.
“She’d send me pictures of cats,” Pennick said. That morning, “we were talking about it again and I told everyone, ‘If God really wants me to have a cat, he’s just gonna have to drop one in my arms.’”
And then the clock ticked and the winds got up and a desperate cyclist landed at their door.
“You have to see this cat,” Elgas told Pennick.
At first, “I told her I was too busy,” Pennick said. “She convinced me to take a look.”
And a look was all it took.
“As soon as she put her in my arms,” Pennick said. “It was love at first sight.”
When the Animal Control officer arrived, he checked out the baby calico, deemed her healthy and then dropped the bad news.
“He said the shelters were overrun with cats,” Pateros said.
Pennick added, “I was going to go wherever the (officer) was going to take her, to adopt her. But he said because of overcrowding, she’d most likely be shipped out of state.
“I said, ‘Absolutely not. I’ll take her right now.’”
And a relationship was born.
Pennick, a resident of Joliet, took the feline home and renamed her Fantasia Silver Bells. He also took the animal to his veterinarian.
“She is doing fantastic. They initially thought she was about six weeks old, but it turns out she was only three (weeks) going on four,” Pennick said. “Another miracle: For what she’s gone through, she’s completely healthy. No fleas, no problems. She’s just incredible.
“She’s a bundle of energy and joy, probably one of the most loving and affectionate cats I’ve ever seen. She loves to cuddle,” Pennick said. “I just can’t imagine life without her right now.”
Pennick added, “I didn’t realize I was adopting a star. Everybody wants me to bring her back in so they can see how she’s doing.”
At a time when it seems the world “is filled with people hurting each other, it’s nice to see so much compassion,” he said.
Pateros said the event was in the top 3 of happy things that have happened in the ER over the years.
“We get so busy and lose sight of empathy and compassion. It stopped us for a minute,” she said. “It kind of reset everybody on a very busy day.”
Donna Vickroy is an award-winning reporter, editor and columnist who worked for the Daily Southtown for 38 years. She can be reached at donnavickroy4@gmail.com.
