Zach Fucale and Alex Limoges can add “cat rescuer” to their career accolades after this past week.
The two former Hershey Bears teamed up to do some good in Belarus, where they’re playing for Dinamo Minsk in the KHL this season, saving a stray kitten from a Minsk roadway. Limoges, who took the kitten home with him, told the story after the team’s practice last Wednesday.
“So, we were walking home last night and it was running across the street,” Limoges said. “Zach Fucale ran out in the street and stopped traffic, picked it up, brought it to the side of the road, and then it started running away. We talked about it a little bit, I grabbed it, and we brought it home. [I] picked up cat food and gave it some water. It wasn’t eating or drinking, but spent the night at my place in the bathroom, and we’ve been getting along pretty well.”
While Limoges’s fiancée wants him to keep the cute little adventurer, his travel-heavy schedule in the KHL means he likely won’t be able to take care of a pet long-term. However, he and the team will do whatever they can to find the kitten a good home.
“We brought it in here to the rink to try to figure out what to do with it,” Limoges said. “And now everybody’s falling in love with her, so I’m sure she’s going to have a home here pretty soon. But it was funny, all the guys petting her, walking in, and just couldn’t believe it.”
Limoges also relayed that Emma Usova, the wife of Dinamo forward Ilya Usau, will be taking the kitten to the vet to get cleaned up and ensure it has all its shots.
“We’re going to figure out a nice home for it,” Limoges said. “A nice permanent home because it needs some love. We’ll figure out what’s her next destiny.”
On top of being good humans, Limoges and Fucale are also some of the KHL’s biggest stars early in the 2025-26 campaign.
The two have gotten off to tremendous starts for Dinamo in their first seasons with the club, which currently holds a 7-4-2 record. Limoges is the team’s leading scorer with 13 points (6g, 7a) in 12 games, while Fucale has a 6-3-2 record in net with a 1.97 goals-against average, a .926 save percentage, and two shutouts.
