SEPTA workers rescue family of kittens from inside a wall at Market-Frankford Line station

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A feline family was reunited after five newborn kittens were rescued — over the course of three days — from inside a wall at a West Philadelphia SEPTA Market-Frankford Line station this week.

After hearing cries of a kitten behind a wall at the 63rd Street Market-Frankford Line station on Monday, SEPTA workers removed a portion of a wall towards the bottom of the steps and were able to pull one kitten out. They sealed the wall back up.

Erica Stokes, a SEPTA maintenance custodian, took the kittens home while the mother was loudly meowing. She says it was almost as though the cat was trying to tell her something.

“I was [saying], ‘OK, you don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to,’ because she was fighting me,” recalled Stokes.

The next day, more kitten cries were heard. Workers opened up the wall again and this time, two kittens were retrieved. On Wednesday, two more were rescued from behind the wall along with the mother cat roaming around.

“I have five kids of my own and I just know the heartache and just being stressed out, you know, you trying to get help for kids,” said Stokes. “She is a good mother though. She was not going with me, that’s for sure, because she knew there were more.”

The feline family is all together again at the Stray Cat Relief rescue in South Philadelphia.

“They are really tiny little babies, I would say, maybe three weeks old,” said Debbie DiStanisloa, the rescue’s vice president. “They are nursing with their mom right now and when they are getting a little bit older we’ll start their vaccines and then everyone. including mom, will get spayed and neutered.”

After that, they’ll be available for adoption.