Robert “Bobby” Silva expected June 27 to bring familiar training drills and laps in a safety boat. A New London Animal Control post published Sept. 30 later revisited the rescue. NBC Connecticut’s Oct. 12 report described the kitten as five weeks old and in the water about 120 feet from the Gold Star Memorial Bridge’s safe span. Silva and the other responders turned toward the small animal in rough water. NBC reported that Silva adopted her on July 19, 22 days after the rescue.
Silva, 26, is from Waterford and a member of Laborers Local 547. NBC Connecticut reports he was one of the people in the safety boats who helped respond. The day was scheduled for practice, not an animal rescue. It became his first rescue of an animal. He later described thinking first that the crew needed to get the cat out.
Silva spotted her struggling in rough water and high winds. He worried movement from the boat could push water around the kitten and send her drifting farther away. The crew had to approach a small animal in choppy conditions, with the danger that the boat’s wake could worsen her position. Silva’s account of that moment emphasizes both parts of the decision: get her out quickly, and take care not to push her farther.
He reached down, grabbed her and brought her aboard. Frightened, she bit him and latched onto his thumb for a couple of seconds. It was a startling first animal rescue, but the immediate goal was to get the kitten out of the water. From there, she was taken to a veterinary hospital.
New London Animal Control told NBC she had no broken bones but did have a bruised lung with fluid. That is the medical information reported after the fall; the story does not include a later veterinary assessment or a longer recovery timeline. It is enough to establish that Molly was examined after the rescue, while leaving her subsequent health outside what the report verifies.
An animal control officer at the scene called her Geronimo. Silva had a different name in mind when he adopted her on July 19: Molly Carlson, after the Canadian world medalist cliff diver. The adoption came 22 days after the rescue. That date makes the sequence clear: first the crew answered the call, then Silva made a separate decision to bring the kitten home.
Silva said he had always been a cat person and felt connected to Molly because of the rescue. In the NBC interview, he explained that connection as the reason he wanted to keep her. The adoption was not part of the rescue itself; it came later, after the kitten had been examined. Silva also said he was willing to help animals and people in the heat of the moment, describing the rescue as an instinctive response rather than a planned mission.
Before adopting her, Silva expected Molly might be skittish after what she had gone through. Instead, he described a “complete turnaround”: she was affectionate and purred often. “She loves being loved” and is “always purring,” he told NBC. Those are Silva’s observations as her adopter, not a medical evaluation. They capture what he noticed at home after the adoption, without suggesting a later clinical check.
Silva encouraged others to consider adopting animals they feel connected to and to trust themselves to do the right thing. That advice is his takeaway from the experience, not a promise that every rescue will unfold the same way. In Molly’s case, the reported steps are specific: a training-day radio call, a rescue by the boat crew, a veterinary examination and an adoption weeks later.
NBC’s report does not confirm how the kitten came to be on the bridge or establish a cause for the fall. The story’s hopeful ending does not require filling in that blank. It rests on what Silva and Animal Control told NBC: a crew got a five-week-old kitten out of the water, and one of its rescuers later chose to make her part of his home.
Reader responses