Friday night, we received a call from a lady who’s kitten was trapped in a drain. Two of our Volunteers called over and found that the curious kitten (don’t worry, it’s a happy ending) had crawled into an open pipe outside the back door. They weren’t long living there and hadn’t noticed it, or considered that it was something one of their kittens would do. They could hear his cries but sadly could not get to him even though they managed to clear some of the area around it. Help was needed and unfortunately for the kitten, he had to spend the night trapped and crying. Saturday that help arrived, and better help couldn’t have been asked for. A digger from Laois Hire was brought to the house by David Sheeran from Advanced Timber Products as it was initially thought that the pipe led to a storm drain which was covered in gravel. David got to work straight away in case this was our access point to the kitten. Jimmy Mac, one of our super volunteers, then arrived and Jimmy felt that the pipe might lead to a radon box somewhere under the house. We had no way of knowing if this was the case or even where this box might be located until we were joined by Shane Carroll of Carroll Design & Survey Ltd. Shane was able to use CCTV equipment to survey the pipe and locate the kitten in the box, 7 metres in! The next step was to attach some food and put this in with the camera to try and coax the kitten out. We held our breaths as he crawled forward into the pipe after the food but when he had come out about a metre, fear got the better of him and he retreated. Different ways to coax him out were tried but after a couple of hours, it became obvious that he was not going to do it. The location of the box within the house was found and the decision to go through the floor was made without hesitation by the kittens owners. And that’s how he was rescued, wet and dusty but otherwise fine. Huge thanks to Shane, Jimmy, David, Peter and Seamus, another happy ending (once the floor is filled back in!)
