The rescued kitty now has a furever home with some of his heroes.
Photo credit: Karen Wolfsen
Neighbors and police conducted a purr-fectly successful operation when they rescued an adorable kitten on Staten Island Wednesday afternoon.
The feline fiasco occurred at around 3:06 p.m. on Aug. 28 on Thomas Street in Richmondtown. Concerned neighbors heard the young cat crying from underneath the grating.
Karen Wolfsen was checking her mailbox when she saw the commotion in front of her house.
“I went to check my mail and noticed three of my neighbors on the curb outside of my house,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine why they were sitting there. I walked over and asked if everything was ok. The three women, three generations of a family, grandmother, mother and daughter, told me there was a little kitten trapped in the sewer.”
The grandmother, Wolfsen said, was walking to her daughter’s house on the same block when she heard the cat not only meowing, but almost screaming for help.
The frantic neighbors tried desperately to rescue the trapped animal, even making a platform out of a bird cage grating to do a scoop and lift, but quickly realized they needed professionals to remove the grate.
As the rescue attempt continued, the women called city agencies several times. Employees told them they could not help or to just “leave a message.”
Meanwhile, other neighbors gathered around to help. Staten Islanders worked on the ground in 90-plus-degree heat and blazing sunlight to rescue the terrified cat from the harrowing situation.
Wolfsen even called her “angelic” friend in upstate New York who, as a fellow animal lover, helped make calls. WABC-TV flew a chopper over the scene.
Soon, after the NYPD received a report of a kitten stuck in a storm drain, the agency sent officers from its Special Operations Emergency Services Unit (ESU) to the rescue, according to police sources.
Law enforcement sources said officers, with help from the NYC…
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