She needed help.
Last month, a security guard at Parkdale Mall in Beaumont, Texas, was making his rounds when he suddenly heard a tiny sound coming from a quiet area near Macy’s.
It was a faint meow.
The guard stopped and tried to figure out where the noise was coming from, but he couldn’t find the animal on his own. Worried that a cat might be trapped somewhere, he contacted local authorities for help.
Animal control officers Nevils and Carraway soon arrived at the mall and began listening carefully. After searching the area, they realized the sound was coming from inside an open drainage tube.
When they looked down into the pipe, they spotted a tiny calico kitten stuck deep below.
The rescue would not be simple. The kitten was far down the tube, and the inside was slippery with mud and water. Officer Nevils used an extendable mirror to get a better look at the kitten’s position. Then she came up with a clever idea.
She went to her vehicle, grabbed a towel and tore it into long strips. Carefully, she lowered the strips into the tube, hoping the kitten would understand what to do.
Luckily, the little cat caught on right away.
She dug her tiny claws into the towel and began climbing. Slowly, inch by inch, she made her way up the slick pipe until she was finally close enough for Officer Nevils to reach her and pull her out.
The kitten was wet, cold and covered in mud, but thankfully, she was otherwise healthy.
Even better, she didn’t have to wait long for a home. The same security guard who first heard her cries decided to adopt her himself.
Now, the tiny calico is safe, warm and living with her new dad — far away from the cold drainage tube where she had been trapped.
No one knows exactly how she ended up inside such a difficult spot, but thanks to one person who listened carefully and officers who refused to give up, her frightening experience ended with a happy new beginning.