On Tuesday night, a citizen flagged down Fayette Humane Officer Brad Adams on the road after hearing the sound of a kitten crying in a storm drain. Adams responded to the location on Dayton Avenue near the intersection of Oakland in Washington C.H.
Although Adams was unable to see a kitten, he could hear crying from a pipe connected to the larger storm drain. A can of cat food was lowered into the drain with hopes that the kitten would smell the scent and come out of the pipe.
“The kitten came out of the smaller pipe into the larger drain a couple times to eat the food but would run back into the smaller pipe once the sound of a vehicle would drive by. This was causing more of a challenge for the rescue effort. At one point the kitten wouldn’t come back out of the pipe because of the reoccurring noises,” said Adams.
A cage net was lowered down into the large drain, covering the canned food. After several more minutes of the kitten not returning to the large drain from the pipe, Adams utilized digital sound effects of kittens crying on a YouTube video.
After a short time of playing the sound effects on Adams’ phone, the kitten came running out of the pipe and into the net, ending the one hour and 15-minute rescue.
“I never thought about using sound effects from YouTube in the past for these situations but in this line of work, you learn new ways of doing things every day,” said Adams.
The kitten, named Daytona, was transported to the Fayette Humane Society Adoption and Business Center where she was examined by veterinary technician and humane officer Danyel Bageant. As of press time, Daytona was healthy and will soon be available for adoption.
The Fayette Humane Society is a non-profit (501(c)(3), volunteer organization. The organization receives less than 2 percent of its support from governmental organizations and therefore must rely on donations, grants and fundraising to carry out its mission. The Humane Society is the only organization in Fayette County able to respond to calls about abused and neglected and domestic animals, 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
This article was submitted by the Fayette Humane Society.
