Night Rescue

We are so lucky to have special equipment that gives us unique rescue capabilities!

Two nights ago we received a call on the Hope For Paws emergency line.

Loreta got a quick update on the situation: A feral cat had given birth in an attic of an old house.  One day, the homeowner noticed the sounds of kittens and she called the neighbor for help.  The neighbor figured the kitten she heard was actually inside the wall.  He grabbed a hammer, and without even asking - he punched a huge hole and got the kitten out!

The homeowner was able to get the second kitten herself, and it took 3 more DAYS for her to realize that there were more, so she called Barbara Vasilaros, Armineh Shaghzo (both independent rescuers) and Scott Nicholson (Orange Twins Rescue) for help.

Armineh and Scott climbed to the roof, entered the attic, and started crawling.  All of a sudden, the ceiling felt soft, Scott held onto a beam, and the ceiling fell into the living room!!! (funny, it happened to me before too 😅).  We were told the homeowner started laughing, but her husband was NOT happy about it and he was not shy about being very vocal about it (I heard some bad words in a foreign language).  The woman didn't care and asked the team to continue on their mission while she explained to her husband that the smell of a dead kitten in the walls would be much worse!  Even though it was dangerous, they continued crawling in the attic, and in a moment of opportunity, Armineh managed to get a kitten close to her, and she grabbed him by the leg!

Unfortunately, because of the commotion, the last kitten disappeared.  The team could hear some scratching in the walls, but couldn't figure out the exact location.  They were reluctant to go and destroy another wall because the homeowner's husband was quite agitated (they have been in his house for 6 hours at that point, the wall was destroyed, the ceiling was in the living room - he was not having a good day!).

This is where the call to Hope For Paws comes in and so Loreta and I headed out.  The husband was not happy about more damage coming, so I decided NOT to film this one... I wanted to come in, get the kitten, and leave.  It was after 9:00 P.M, and working together with the team (by tapping on the walls), we were able to figure out the possible location of the kitten.

Using the same camera we used on Jessie's rescue - we were able to local the kitten in less than 15 minutes!  If you missed this rescue video - it is a MUST SEE video with almost TEN MILLION views:

This is obviously a terrible situation for the kitten and without us going into the wall, he would have died in there.

I created a small hole that would enable Loreta to put her arm into the wall, and that moment was so interesting, so I quickly grabbed my phone and took this picture:

The little kitten (who never had any human contact) didn't even resist - he was so happy to be safe!

Now that all 4 babies were safe, it was time to capture the mom.  The original team set up a trap with the carrier with the kittens right next to it, and they got her too!

The mom will be spayed, and the homeowner is already anxious to get her back because she feeds her every day.  The attic is now being fixed, so no one can go in there again (cats, rats, raccoons).

 

The babies are all together, eating well, feeling well, and they are ready to find their forever homes!  If you would like to adopt them, please contact Peter Zippi Memorial Fund.

This whole story reminds me of little Cricket from this video:

 

In the past week, we had TWO MORE wall rescues.  It's a little weird how much structural damage we caused and I feel bad especially because no one wants to have repair people in their homes right now, but because people love animals, they allowed us to do these rescues, lives were saved, and another cool video will be posted very soon - totally worth it! 😉👍

If I told most people "tomorrow someone will come to your house, poke a hole in your wall and pull kittens out", they would think I am CrAzY!  It's funny how this turned to be a reality for 3 families in ONE WEEK 😂

 

Thank you so much for donating to Hope For Paws and helping us get life-saving equipment!

Eldad