NEW ORLEANS — Marin Bush is a little girl with a big love of animals.
Recently, she adopted a kitten that showed up in her backyard and named it Alex.
Marin said it was likely the neighborhood cat Uno’s baby.
“She was so nice,” Marin said. “We just, we loved her.”
Marin and her mom took Alex to a vet for a check-up and routine vaccinations.
That night, the kitten had a bad reaction to the shots. Marin found Alex, dead under her house.
“I found the kitten just lying there and someone heard my crying,” Marin said.
Marin’s mother Heidi Rieth said her 10-year-old was devastated.
“We were all pretty shocked and she was screaming hysterically and I was literally holding her next to the house and she was crying pretty loud,” Rieth said.
A neighbor heard the screams and called New Orleans police.
Officers Tyler Sermon and Jacob Tucker from the NOPD Sixth District responded to the call.
“It came out as unknown trouble,” Sermon said “Neighbor called that somebody was yelling, possibly yelling for help.”
The officers soon arrived at Marin’s house to make sure everything was okay.
“I think at first, she was nervous,” Tucker said. “I think maybe she felt like she did something wrong when we knocked on the door.”
Sermon and Tucker spent the next half-hour on their break, talking with Marin, trying to get her to stop crying.
“She told us that she loved animals and she wanted to be a vet, we shared some of our experiences,” Sermon said. “I had family members who were vets and we talked about her dreams.”
“Naturally, you want to try and get her to calm down,” Tucker said. “You don’t want to see anybody upset like that. I thought maybe we could just talk to her a little bit and see if she can settle down and take her mind off of things.”
Mission accomplished.
With the officers’ help, Marin started to feel better.
“This was above and beyond their responsibilities,” Rieth said. “They were so compassionate…it was a blessing.”
According to the officers they were just doing their job.
"Honestly, it feels good,” Tucker said. “It’s nice to know we made a difference in somebody’s life during a bad day.”
“I’ve got a little girl myself,” Sermon said. “It was nice to kind of see her smile.”
Marin had a message for the police officers.
“Thank you for being there,” Marin said. “You comforted me a lot and I really did need that. If it wasn’t for them, I probably would still be crying right now.”
Both officers Sermon and Tucker said meeting Marin gave them a great opportunity to interact with the community they serve. Her family said while the kind gesture may seem small to the officers, it was huge to them and their daughter.
Officers Sermon and Tucker are relatively new to the NOPD.
Sermon moved to New Orleans from Louisville to join the department.
Tucker is from Rhode Island.
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