I'm so glad you were in the right place at the right time! Poor, poor scared and hurt kitty didn't deserve to be tormented like that. I went through a similar incident a month or so ago. I had stopped into a local store where a friend (another cat nut) works, and when I came out noticed a commotion up the street involving a bus. At first I thought a person got hit as it's happened before, but instead discovered a poor orange cat had crawled under the bus when it stopped to let someone off. The poor bus driver was upset and kept saying that he didn't do it (I knew that, the cat would have been dead) and the passengers were getting annoyed. I had someone hold up the mud flap while I tried to reach him, but he dragged himself to the other side, and almost into oncoming traffic. I almost had him when the animal control pulled up and got out his catch pole and dragged the poor cat out by the neck carted him away to the vets where the cat was euthanized. I knew he had a broken back, and I took a small amount of comfort in knowing they don't feel much pain when it's broken. So your rescued kitty and this lil' red guy are romping whole again over the Rainbow Bridge.