A pint-sized kitten that was trapped in the city’s sewer system is safe and sound and in a new home today after a laudable effort by city agencies Monday afternoon to rescue it.
A concerned citizen stopped by the Bellefontaine Fire Department about 4 p.m. Monday, Aug. 25, and alerted firefighters that he heard a kitten crying in a catch basin located off the Sandusky Avenue and North Detroit Street intersection.
Firefighters got prybars and were able to successfully remove one of the basin’s heavy storm grates at the intersection, but could not free the other.
Bellefontaine Water Department personnel were called to assist and brought an excavator, and later a jackhammer to the scene to help remove the stuck grate.
Firefighters also entered the sewer via a nearby manhole on the intersection to get to the feline, but they were unable to get to the animal. When the jackhammer was started, the noise sent the frightened kitten into the firefighters’ waiting arms.
Officers of the Bellefontaine Police Department provided traffic control on Sandusky Avenue during the rescue effort.
A Good Samaritan had reportedly put food in the catch basin Sunday where the kitten was heard crying, but was not visible.
The rescue effort took about an hour and a half, Bellefontaine Assistant Fire Chief Nate Alexander said.
Alexander said the kitten seemed to be “in pretty good shape” after the ordeal.
The kitten spent the night in the day room at the firehouse.
Firefighter/paramedic Matt McMillen and his girlfriend, who is a veterinary student, have decided to provide a home for the kitten.
A name for the lucky kitty has not yet been decided, firefighters said.
Firefighters said that although this rescue effort was successful, they typically refuse cat rescue requests involving trees from the public.
Cat rescues usually don’t go the way they are depicted in movies, Fire Chief Brian Wilson said.
Putting a ladder on a tree can create unstable, unsafe situations and often scares the cat and makes them climb higher on the tree, he said.
(PHOTOS | BELLEFONTAINE FIRE DEPT. and RYAN SHIEDS, BELLEFONTAINE WATER DEPT.)
