When a tiny kitten was trapped in a wall this week, the Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue came to save the day. Even though it is unclear how the baby cat got stuck inside the wall in the first place, the firefighters managed to get her out safely. The firefighters used a thermal imaging camera to find out where the kitten was trapped.
According to deputy fire chief Timothy Heiser, the firefighters waited around to listen for the kitten’s meow. Heiser told ABC News, “The guys did the whole creeping around the house thing. They got a thermal imaging camera … and knocking and going along the wall, they managed to find where the cat was. A light heat signature was detected through the wall.”
Once the rescue team detected the location of the kitten, they had to cut open the wall to get her out. Heiser explaining, “They’ve got all the tools they need for cutting stuff up. The owner was more than happy to let us cut a hole in the wall. They found the little guy in there. They didn’t know how long he was in there for. They washed him off and brought some food for him back to the station. Everybody at the station has already adopted so many cats and dogs from rescues like these so no one was available to take him.”
Heiser continued, “It was a stray that either the mother cat carried into the attic to keep it safe or gave birth up there and this one just wandered. We get a lot of these. The shelters are all overloaded so a lot of our guys adopt them. Cats and dogs. One guy even has a parrot. It’s pretty funny. My poor mother’s taken in more cats than I know. We always try to find a home for them. We had a bunny rabbit last week. We always manage to find something.”
Heiser ended the interview reflecting that animal rescues are always “sad to begin with because you’ve got an animal that is by itself, but when you have a happy ending, that’s great.” The kitten was taken to a no-kill animal shelter and is currently waiting to be adopted.
