WEST VIRGINIA – Firefighters jumped quickly into action Tuesday night and made perhaps their most adorable rescue yet.
A camera has recorded the entire rescue as a gray kitten stuck in a storm drain near the Cabell County courthouse in Huntington, West Virginia, was pulled to safety.
The kitten has a very impressive set of pipes for such a small ball of fur. Her frantic meows are what alerted people walking by to her presence. The kitty was famished, scared and stuck in a storm drain.
“Two individuals were here who said seen a kitty cat down in the drain,” stated Huntington firefighter Chris McGee. “So we put a flashlight in the drain and we heard it.”
McGee and the other firefighters tried absolutely everything they could think of – rope, a flashlight, even a white sheet.
“It’d outsmart us every time and just run away,” he stated.
However, each time, the kitten would run to safety under the street.
“We weren’t going to leave it,” stated McGee. “We were going to get it out some way. No way we’d leave it.”
McGee went down the ladder many times, contorting his body to fit through the opening. Finally, using the tried and true rope and flashlight, they got the kitty!
“It felt good, felt good to finally get him or her,” he stated.
That’s right, the kitty is a she, not a he, and just a few weeks old at the most.
She was then lifted to the safety of waiting gloves, with her eyes as big as saucers!
“It’s definitely a first,” stated McGee. “I figured my first cat would be from a tree, not from a storm drain.”
However, the light of Wednesday reveals a whole new kitty, chowing down on everything in sight at the Huntington Cabell Wayne Animal Shelter.
She now has a brand new name and it’s a good one – Stormy, just like the color of her fur and the drain from where she was found.
“I hope it does get a good home,” stated McGee. “If I had a place for it, I’d take it, but I can’t do it.”
Yet, McGee did all he could to make sure Stormy has a bright future. Almost two years on the job and this was his first kitty rescue.
Several people called about Stormy having seen her story. Just before the shelter closed for the day, word was that she was adopted!
McGee stated that all the publicity should be a good reminder of the things that first responders of all kinds do on a regular basis which usually go unrecognized.
“I’m an animal lover so there’s a little special place in my heart for animals,” McGee added. “It felt good. I enjoyed it.”
He hopes the new owner keeps the name.
No one knows just where Stormy came from or how she got in the drain. There was some water in the pipe under Fourth Avenue, which kept her from going too far.
