Rescuers Lower Camera Into Pipe And Spot A Furry Baby Stuck Inside
They had to act fast.
Recently, members of Catz R Us SA, a cat fostering organization in Pretoria, South Africa, were trapping homeless cats near a shopping mall when they noticed one of the 6-week-old kittens run away into a pipe underneath the mall.
Concerned for the kitten, rescuers spent two days trying to get her out of the pipe. Eventually, they called members of De Beer Project Solutions for backup, who used a camera to confirm the little cat was still stuck about 39 feet below.
Soon, rescuers from STAR Specialist Technical Animal Rescue were on the scene, ready to help. The pipe was only 12 centimeters wide, so they needed something thin and long. Rescuers decided to attach a camera to a pool noodle, which they lowered into the hole. But when they finally got another look inside, they realized the kitten was gone — she’d escaped into another area within the piping system.
“Somehow, the tiny, furious furball had broken through the expansion foam and was in some small space full of ducting,” STAR wrote in a Facebook post.
The team hurriedly searched for the other end of the pipe, which they eventually located in one of the mall’s electrical boxes. Cautiously, the team searched the electrical box and began to play recorded kitten calls, hoping the lost cat would respond. Soon enough, she did.
“Within moments, we were hearing noises,” STAR wrote in the post. “We told everyone to pipe down. Crawling, confused and dusty from the high-voltage box was a tiny, blue-eyed furball.”
STAR chairperson Nadia Hansa was so thrilled to see the kitten she almost electrocuted herself.
“I was so excited to see her tiny head poking up from the bottom of the box,” Hansa told The Dodo. “I reached in so quickly that the others were scared I had forgotten about the electricity, but we were all safe.”
The kitten was soon reunited with her siblings and moved into foster care. Two weeks later, the blue-eyed baby was adopted into her forever home.
Safe at last, this daring girl is enjoying every second of her new, far less dangerous lifestyle.
