Last week, a member of the public from Cleveland contacted the RSPCA Queensland call centre (1300 264 625) as they had heard a kitten crying in the drain at the front of their property for the last few days. They were concerned the mother had abandoned it and with the forecast rain, feared it may drown if it couldn’t escape.
Rikki-Lee one of our dedicated volunteer ambulance drivers, was sent out to do some reconnaissance and find out what the situation was. As our rescue unit pulled up, Rikki-Lee could hear the kitten meowing and straight away, Janet, one of the neighbours came to offer assistance and confirmed which drain the kitten had fallen into.
In order to get a better idea of where the kitten was located and what sort of rescue would be required, Rikki-lee took a photo down the drain. In the photo she could just make out a tiny figure looking back at her a few meters down the pipe, unfortunately this meant she wasn’t in arms reach.
After speaking to one of the rescue officers, plan B was to place some smelly food at the end of the drain in the hope the kitten was hungry and would walk out of the pipe where she could be contained.
While she was waiting for plan B to lure the kitten out, the thought of the kitten spending a lonely night in a cold wet drain kept playing on her mind but then the thought of a mother cat calling to her kittens popped into her head - Thank goodness for technology and YouTube!
Rikki-lee searched on YouTube for a mother cat calling out to her kittens, played the video into the drain and the kitten immediately started to call back and then wondered straight out of the drain where she could lean inside and pick her straight up!
The Rescue Unit usually use this trick on ducklings in drains so it’s great to see it also worked to rescue this little kitten.
