Sheriff's Office Rescues Kitten With Paw Stuck in Sewer Grate
Fire Rescue freed a feline who found himself in a strange predicament.
— -- It was the purr-fect save.
The Broward Sheriff's Office Department of Fire Rescue saved a kitten who got his paw stuck in a sewer grate this morning in Florida.
The tiny kitten can be seen licking at his trapped front paw, trying to loosen it from the metal sewer cover in Lauderdale Lakes.
The Fire Rescue Department was called to the scene this morning after a homeowner saw the trapped kitten, Mike Jachles the Public Information Officer for the Broward Sheriff’s Office told ABC News today.
Jachles said it was unclear if the kitten had an owner or if it was a stray.
"Whether a lizard or something ran down that little hole and caught the cat's curiosity, we don't know," Jachles said, "We figure he might have been there for as long as 12 hours."
"It was sitting there and just kind of howling and meowing," Jachles added, "It was very friendly to our firefighters."
Firefighters spent a half hour on scene, unsuccessfully attempting to free the feline’s limb with lubricants and other methods before they transported the kitten to VCA Imperial Point Animal Hospital in Ft. Lauderdale.
At the animal hospital, vets and firefighters used a series of saws to gingerly cut a hole in the steel cover, eventually liberating the feline, who was under anesthesia the whole time.
Remarkably, the kitten suffered no broken bones and remains at the vet. It is recuperating well while they are trying to see if he has a home, Jachles added. He said a firefighter had expressed interest in giving the kitten, who they nicknamed "Captain" a forever home.
