Last Updated on June 8, 2026 by admin
The Long Island Rail Road engineer who spotted an orange cat lying between the rails near Lindenhurst on a Saturday in April assumed the worst. Cats on an electrified railroad do not get second chances. The train kept moving.
The next day, on the same stretch of the Babylon Branch, the same engineer saw the same cat. This time, the cat moved his head.
That one small movement set off a rescue that briefly stopped a railroad. The engineer called John DeBacker, a Long Island rescuer with Long Island Cat Kitten Solution, and the MTA shut off power to the third rail on a Sunday night so DeBacker and three MTA police officers could get to him. One officer kept the cat’s attention from the front while DeBacker came up behind him with a net.
The power was off for about five minutes. Not a single train was delayed.
Nobody Knows How He Got There
The cat had no collar and no microchip. Rescuers believe he was either struck by a train or flipped by one — they may never know which. They named him Garfield, because he is exactly the kind of orange that name demands.
At first, everyone thought he’d been on the tracks for a day, maybe two. The surgeons who opened him up found something worse.
“Everything was necrotic and infected. So it has to be at least a week. Minimum,” Dr. Thomas Infernuso of the Animal Surgical Center told ABC7 Eyewitness News.
A week. Pinned between the rails of an active commuter line, with two broken hind legs, one shattered front leg, and a nasal fracture so severe it nearly punched through the wall between his sinus and his brain. Trains passing over him the entire time.
The Four-Hour Surgery
It took Dr. Infernuso four hours on a Thursday night to put Garfield back together. The bill for his care was projected to climb past $12,000, according to the Daily Voice. Nobody involved seemed to consider any other option.
Then came the moment that made the overnight staff stop what they were doing.
Three hours after a four-hour surgery to rebuild three legs and his shattered nose, Garfield asked for food.
“What is quite impressive is how resilient this animal is. Three hours later, he started eating. I think he was basically starving,” Infernuso said. “The overnight doctor’s like, this cat is a miracle.”
If you live with an orange cat, you already understand. A train couldn’t stop the food drive. A week between the rails couldn’t stop it. Anesthesia slowed it down by exactly three hours.
The Calmest Patient They’ve Ever Had
Here is the part that surprised even the people who do this for a living. A stray cat who had just survived the worst week imaginable never once lashed out.
“No sign of aggression, no biting, no hissing, and no clawing at anyone. Happy to be alive, basically,” DeBacker said.
You can watch the rescue itself in video published by CBS New York — a small orange shape between the rails, and a handful of people in safety vests deciding he was worth stopping a railroad for.
Where Garfield Is Now
Garfield is recovering at Long Island Cat Kitten Solution, eating with the commitment of a cat making up for lost time. His story traveled far beyond Long Island, and adoption inquiries started lining up before his stitches healed.
The plan is extensive rehab first, then a forever home — somewhere with no schedules, no rails, and a food bowl that never sits empty for long.
An engineer who looked twice. Three officers who stopped the power. A surgeon who worked until midnight. And a cat who repaid all of it by waking up hungry.
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