Milford residents rally to rescue kitten trapped storm drain for days
‘The way she was crying, there was no way I could leave her without really trying’
CLERMONT COUNTY, Ohio (WXIX) - A kitten is safe and sound after a scary situation Sunday night at the UDF in Milford.
The kitten, now dubbed Piper, got stuck in a storm drain. Melissa Gates was one of the Good Samaritans who responded.
”Her cries were letting us know that she was terrified,” Gates said Monday.
There were two drains, Gates explains. She and others made several attempts to lure the kitten out by calling her and dropping food, but no luck,
”So we just decided at that point and time that we were going to put somebody down in the drain,” Gates said. “So somebody who is a cook at Texas Roadhouse decided, ‘I’ll do it.’ He volunteered. So we had him by his feet literally hanging in the drain with a video, so he had my phone to take videos to see if we could see her, because we weren’t sure what side she was on.”
But still they couldn’t get to the kitten, and some of those who stopped to help began to depart.
”I thought, ‘I can’t leave her.’ The way she was crying, there was no way I could leave her without really trying and saying, ‘Ok, I give up.’ I wasn’t ready to give up, so.”
Gates, who volunteers as a foster for Dream House Rescue, had one more idea.
”We actually played on Youtube video of a mommy calling for her kittens, and about five minutes after that she came to the edge, and we just snatched her up out of the drain, and the girl handed her up to me.”
Gates says she believes Piper was stuck in the drain pipe for at least a week.
”She was really cold and dehydrated but she’s made a pretty good rebound,” Gates said. “She seems happy.”
Gates plans to foster Piper for the next month. Then Piper will be available for adoption through Dream House Rescue.
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