Archive: Around Town

It was a heart-stopping moment: A tiny orange kitten darted into heavy traffic in front of Squeaky Clean Car Wash on Triphammer Road early Monday evening. A car swerved to miss him. The kitten, terrified by the traffic, ran blindly across the road – and disappeared. He had slipped through the wide grating of a storm drain, falling six feet to the sludgy bottom. Trapped, scared and filthy the kitten had no way out. Thankfully, a passerby stopped and called the SPCA for help.

The 4-week old stray kitten, who later weighed in at just over one and a half pounds, hid in a pipe connecting two storm drains under Triphammer Road. SPCA staff searched for a way to coax the kitten to the opening, but he couldn’t be budged. With the help of Bill Wheeler, an employee of Squeaky Clean, and the loan of a large pry bar, the heavy storm grates on both sides of the road were lifted. By now, two sheriff’s deputies were on the scene, along with SPCA Animal Control Officer Tracy Barton.

The SPCA staffers, Colter Nemecek and Sarah Hebbard, climbed into the storm basins on either side of the road. Using a long pole fashioned out of camping supplies from Nemecek’s vehicle, the kitten was gently nudged toward Hebbard, who netted the kitten and brought him to safety.

The freshly bathed kitten is now in the infirmary at the SPCA, being treated for an upper respiratory infection. He may have used up a couple of his nine lives by now, but he will soon be available for adoption to start his new life in a safe home!

SPCA Executive Director Abigail Smith says “We don’t know how the kitten ended up in a busy shopping district, but we are grateful to all the people who stopped to help and to the sheriff’s department for their support. In this instance, the SPCA was quite literally a safety net for the orphaned kitten.”

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