Local Dad & Daughter Rescue Kitten from Sewer Drain

Permission granted by poster of original story on Facebook. Attributions linked within.

Picture of the kitten, post rescue, from the sewer drains of L.A.Photo byEric J. Guignard

With all the bad news out there, it’s nice to see a happy story on social media. This week I read a Facebook post by L.A. based writer Eric J. Guignard that made me smile. I hope it will make you smile too. He and his daughter saved the life of one lucky little feral kitten, and their kindness ensures the kitten will have a nice, safe life.

Guignard’s post began: “My daughter and I rescued a stray/feral kitten from the sewer drains yesterday!” He knows how to hook an audience. He stated that he and his family live in a “coyote-infested neighborhood” so have never seen a stray cat.

That all changed last Thursday night when a kitten darted in front of his car. When he first saw the cat, he tried to catch it so it wouldn’t end up a “coyote meal,” but it ran into a sewer drain.

The next day he was driving with his son who mused “Wouldn’t it be crazy to hear it crying from the sewer right now?” Guignard rolled his window down and “heard the kitten calling from the drain that exact moment!”

photo of sewer drain where kitten was hidingPhoto byEric J. Guignard

He sprang to action. “We went to my house, got a prybar, some canned tuna and water, and then returned; I lifted the manhole cover and we went under the street. The kitten was terrified of us and ran deeper into the drain tunnel, but I left three plates of food and water for it.

Three hours later, I returned with a very kind volunteer, Liz Purrerra, who does cat trapping, and we went back into the drain, but the kitten was gone, and so gone were all the plates.”

Though the volunteer left the trap with him, the attempts to find the kitten again seemed “purposeless, figuring the kitten was gone one way or the other.” Later that evening he met Purrerra at the drain to return the trap. He brought his daughter along.

Once there, Purrerra “had the great idea to play a Cat App on her phone that sounded of kittens meowing… all of a sudden we heard the lost kitty meow back to us from under the street!! It was still there, but had gone through a distant turn in the pipe further away.”

Most people would have walked away, but Guignard knew he had to save this tiny, frightened creature.

He and his daughter went into the sewer, armed with more food from the volunteer and the Cat App. His daughter “went to one end of the main drain and diligently played that kitten-meow phone app over and over and over, and I stayed on the other side of the shaft where it had descended (while run-off poured down my back the whole time). The kitten immediately responded to the phone app like the Pied Piper, meowing non-stop, and following the path of the phone app’s meowing sounds toward my daughter.”

frightened kitten in sewer drain, not knowing she would soon be rescuedPhoto byEric J. Guignard

The kitten was frightened but very slowly came closer to get food. Guignard threw a blanket over it, finally catching the hungry little kitten.

He says the “the kitten was super sweet while being held…a purring machine. It’s tiny, female, and very vocal.”

He and his daughter brought the grateful kitten to “Marcie Guerra from Cats and Comics who volunteered to socialize it with another kitten she had. Very happy ending! And my daughter is so elated to say that she is part of a “Real-life cat rescue!”

Thank you Eric, his daughter, and all the volunteers to not only saved the kitten's life but reminded us that kindness is what makes the world a better place!