The sun had already set on the streets of Los Angeles, and Eldad Hagar was returning to the scene of an emergency rescue operation. Hagar is an animal rescuer by trade, and he’d gotten a text from a friend named Terri Fox (who was in the same business) about a crying animal down a manhole on a street corner.
Hagar arrived and met up with some good Samaritans who had heard the cries and had texted them for help. He also brought some hand tools to hopefully improvise and pry up the large manhole cover.
“Hi,” Hagar greeted. “Let’s see if it'll work with screwdrivers.”
They got the lid up with a little work before lowering themselves down the ladder. Thankfully, they brought a flashlight, as it was pitch dark. There was a low, horizontal tunnel at the bottom. Shining his flashlight inside the tunnel, Hagar spotted two points of green light inside a kitten-shaped silhouette!
“Meow,” Hagar blurted out in the hopes of calling the kitten to him, to which the kitten replied (adorably) in kind. This went on for a while, but to no avail—the kitten wouldn’t come.
Instead, it wandered away from them, further into the sewer. Unfortunately, that meant they had to crawl—which they did, until it opened up into a larger, main junction heading left and right. They split up and started running opposite ways in search of the cat.
“Shhh, we need to be quiet,” said Hagar. They heard more meowing echoing from another small tunnel and then both ran up to it. Sure enough, there were more cat eyes inside when they shined their flashlights inside. Terri decided to crawl in, as she was smaller, and she knew that the kitten was trapped down at the other end; they would have no problems cornering it.
And, the plan worked. Terri crawled in (and got covered in awful grime) and then the kitty ran back toward Hagar, who had taken his shirt off to use as a net. He threw the shirt over the kitten and captured it in his hands.
“Ah-ha! We got you!” Terri cried excitedly. Although Hagar was no stranger to this kind of work, it was Terri’s first-ever sewer rescue. On their way back out, she muttered, “Oh man, I’m so gross right now.”
Hagar noticed a swarm of cockroaches—this was no place for a little kitty. They named her Slinky.
“You don’t want to be here,” he told Slinky.
Soon, they were back at the ladder. Hagar passed Slinky to Terri, and they both made their way back up to street level and were greeted by some excited good Samaritans. They wrapped Slinky in a blanket. She was now safe at last.
They took her to get a bath, and before you knew it, she was a brand-new kitten. Thanks to her rescuers, she’s got a warm place to sleep, food to eat, and toys to keep her purring for hopefully years to come.
