Injured Homeless Man Refuses to Leave His Cat

Ralph Caruso’s kitten has nine lives, but he has only one. And he was willing to risk it for his beloved pet on a recent morning.

A homeless Caruso was the victim of an attack Dec. 14, he said. His arm was broken from the beating, but he refused to get into an ambulance unless he could bring his kitty, Smoke.

It took a few sympathetic people willing to break the rules to keep Caruso and his whiskered companion together. The ordeal began when Caruso was approached by a stranger in Delray Beach. The two exchanged words and the man started beating him with a pipe, said Caruso, 47.

“I had no idea who he was,” he said. “I tried to get away from him, but he kept following me and kept going at me with a pipe.”

Caruso said he escaped with Smoke and called paramedics, who told him pets weren’t allowed in the ambulance. Caruso wouldn’t move without Smoke, a gray-and-white cat with bright blue eyes that he found in the days after Hurricane Wilma in October. Caruso, a construction worker, has been jobless since then, he said, spending nights in motels.

“When I found Smoke, he was a few weeks old. He’s been with me ever since,” Caruso said. “He’s all I got.”

Touched by Caruso’s resolve, one of the paramedics agreed to put Smoke in the front of the ambulance, Caruso said. When they reached Delray Medical Center, nurses bought food for the cat and kept it in a carrier outside the hospital.

They tried to find a place for Smoke while Caruso recovered.

“They called around everywhere, even veterinarians, but none of the places would take it,” said Eve Van Engel, founder of Paws-2-Help -- a mobile clinic offering spaying, neutering and vaccinations to abandoned animals that took Smoke in. “I guess the shelters were still full from hurricane pets.”

Paws-2-Help had Smoke neutered and got him his shots. On Wednesday, a groggy-looking Smoke was nestled in a pet bed inside the mobile clinic.

Van Engel is asking the community to donate money or gift cards to Caruso and Smoke so they can get back on their feet.

Several people came by to visit Smoke, make donations and greet the man who cared so much for his pet. One person paid for a three-day hotel stay.

“I just think it’s wonderful what he did,” said Julian Bergan, 60, of West Palm Beach, who gave Caruso cat food, a new carrier and a book, “Cats for Dummies.”

“My family loves animals,” Bergan said. “We have eight rescue cats.”

When Caruso arrived, Van Engel brought him his bundle of joy.

“There’s no word, no words [to describe this],” Caruso said as he cuddled Smoke, asking the cat for a kiss.

He described life without his pet as “miserable.”

“I’ll feed my cat before I feed myself,” he said. “That’s just me.”