This sweet, scared, wonderful kitten was stuck in a storm drain. It was November 20th, 2019, it was cold and rainy. We kept hearing a tiny meow from the storm drain. We removed the grate, dropped down in there with a flashlight, and saw two glowing eyes, but she always ran away to a smaller part of the tunnel we couldn’t fit in.
I went to the pound to borrow the humane trap. A day later, we had a full sized cat, and thought, hmmm, I thought the meow sounded tinier than this guy. (Mr. Moustache story here) But I figured the tunnel must have made the meow sound different? An hour later, walking by the drain, we hear the tiny meow again. Oh no! There were TWO CATS down there!! So, we immediately set about trapping the little baby.
The problem with SilverPuff is that she was too tiny to trigger the pivot plate to make the trap door shut. We’d set it with a can of food, come back a few hours later, food was eaten, but no kitten! This went on for 3 days, and it was cold outside, raining, and my partner had jumped in and crawled down wet sludgy tunnels many many times. We were getting desperate and he was sore all over from jumping down, squat crawling thru the tunnels and then hoisting himself up. We knew she was at least getting food, and we added a bit of water to the cans of food, too. Still though, that cold wet tunnel system is no place for anyone, let alone this sweet baby. I wracked my brain for a while, then figured out to weight the pivot plate with something we could control the weight of to a minute fraction, then it came to me….. pennies! We used shipping tape to secure pennies on the plate. After about 3 tries, it finally worked. We saved this beautiful baby! I can’t tell you how relieved we were!
This one was hard to give up. I mean, she was so scared, but as soon as I held her, she began to purr. This soft little purr, and she nuzzled up to me. And, she’s unbelievably beautiful, isn’t she? But, still, I had to forego my emotions and do what’s best for the kitten. I felt like my heart was being ripped out, but having 4 cats at home, (all of them rescues), plus Mr. Moustache, I had to surrender her to the pound. The intake guy almost had to force her from my arms as I sat there and sobbed. In AZ, our animal control center is a no-kill shelter. Even so, I regretted leaving SilverPuff there, so I went back a day later, going to get her back. I rebelled in my thoughts – the other cats in my house can just learn to deal. I knew she was too young to be fixed yet, so she wouldn’t have been up for adoption yet. Realistically tho, I had no room, and there was no way my kids at home would accept yet another cat, but I couldn’t stop myself from driving the 30 mins to PACC and marching into the shelter and asking for her. As it turns out, one of the employees, a vet tech, had already adopted her. I told everyone there the whole story and they were choked up too, as I cried with happiness for her. She couldn’t have got a better home than with a vet tech who fell in love upon site, and has access to all the medical care she could ever need!! A very happy ending to my story and brief time with her! I know she will live a long and happy life with her new Mom.
