Images provided by Sandy Imhoff
A client of ours called on Wednesday with a very unusual request. He explained that a friend of his, Sandy Imhoff, was displaced from her home when the garage at 57 Ann Street collapsed on Tuesday and that her cats were stranded in her apartment.
Tragically, Willis Moore, an employee working in the garage, died when the building collapsed. Sandy was lucky to be able to get out of her apartment with her 88 pound Borzoi named Ava, but she didn’t have time to find her two cats, Cathy and Dave, so she was forced to leave them behind. She went back to the building, which was declared unsafe, and she couldn’t convince anyone to let her back into the building to retrieve her fur babies. She started asking her friends for advice, one of whom is a long-time client of RPO. He called to tell me the story and I made a short list of people at the Department of Buildings who I thought would be willing to help.
Fortunately, the first person on the list was compassionate about the situation and immediately helped by calling the FDNY, who is in control of the building. It took a couple of attempts to locate the kitties, but all involved were persistent and were finally able to capture them using their favorite treats. Now Cathy and Dave have been rejoined with Ava and Sandy.
In the midst of dealing with a real tragedy, it was wonderful that the fine folks at DOB and FDNY recognized how a New Yorker was affected by the collateral damage from this horrible situation and made the extra effort to help out.
By Michael Pressel