Highway Superintendent Fired For Rescuing Stranded Cat In Nearby Town

A highway superintendent from Massachusetts was fired recently, after he helped a friend in a neighboring town to rescue a stranded cat.

Jackie Prime, the director of the Philipston town library called on Jim Mackie to come help him out and rescue the poor feline. But after Mackie heroically rescued the cat, named Kaboodle, which got stuck in a 40-foot-tall tree during a bad storm, he lost his job.

Prime said to CBS Boston: “I reached out to a friend. I never thought it would cost him his job.”

It all happened back in May, when the cat, which is owned by Prime’s daughter, ran out of the house during a storm and pelted up the tall tree in the backyard. When Prime called tree companies and Westminster’s fire department to help out, they refused.

When he called on his daughter’s boyfriend, Mackie, he was more than happy to help poor Kaboodle and arrived soon after in his bucket truck, which belongs to the town of Phillipstone where he worked.

Mackie said: “I went up to the top of the tree, grabbed the kitten and brought it back down. Everyone was happy.”

Unfortunately. during the rescue, the bucket truck got stuck in the muddy yard out front so Mackie called on a buddy to come haul him out.

However, the worker was not at all pleased that he had been called to carry out the job since it was not in the town in which he worked. He was so upset that he filed a complaint, which resulted in Mackie losing his job.

“I was just trying to help her out, period. Nothing more. Nothing less. I would have done the same thing for any Phillipston employee,” said Mackie.

Mackie, who has already engaged the services of a lawyer to help him get his job back, is most upset that he got fired for doing a good deed.

Prime also feels bad for Mackie: “I just can’t believe they would derail a man’s life over something like this. If this is just about a cat, then the punishment doesn’t fit the crime,” he said.