YPSILANTI, Mich. – A kitten that fell down a sewer in Ypsilanti was rescued Sunday.
According to the Humane Society of Huron Valley, witnesses said a man threw a box of kittens out of his car Saturday near Dom Bakeries on Washtenaw Avenue. A bystander picked up one of the kittens and brought it to the HSHV, but another kitten got away and fell down a storm drain.
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The Ypsilanti Fire Department and HSHV tried to rescue the kitten Saturday, but were unable to. He was stuck between two sections of the sewer.
“We tried for several hours Saturday night, but there was a lot of commotion, and the kitten was really scared,” says HSHV Rescue Officer Travis Parsons. “He didn’t want to come near us. So I returned first thing on Sunday, hoping he’d be ready to come out.”
Parsons returned the next day and “meowed” down the drain. He heard the kitten “mew” back. People stopped to help him “meow” into the drain so that the location of the kitten could be pinpointed.
Parsons tried to lure the kitten with a lifejacket float that had food on it, but he said it didn’t work.
“Turns out, the kitten hadn’t been weaned yet—he was barely a month old. So I needed another ‘non-food’ plan—and decided to try what we’d done for ducklings earlier in the year,” he said.
The fire department helped created a light stream. The kitten didn’t like water, so he walked away from it and into a net Parsons had at the drain entrance.
He was taken to the HSHV where he was examined and found to be healthy.
Both kittens that were thrown from the car are staying with a HSHV foster parent volunteer in Ypsilanti, and they’re receiving ongoing medical care and monitoring.
In about a month or so, they should be ready for adoption, the HSHV said.
The person who called about the kittens has expressed interest in adopting at least one of the kittens.
“We’re incredibly grateful to the Ypsilanti Fire Department, and so very appreciative of the people who look out for animals, who call us for help, and who remain on the scene to assist and celebrate cases like this,” said Tanya Hilgendorf, HSHV’s president and CEO.
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