Kitten found under car's hood rescued from drainpipe at Pittsburgh-area gas station
BRENTWOOD, Pa. (KDKA) -- A group of concerned animal lovers spent Thursday coaxing out a kitten that was stuck in a drainpipe after he was found under the hood of a vehicle at a Brentwood gas station.
The kitten was one of four that was found under the hood of a car at the GetGo in Brentwood. One of the kittens was injured and died, while two were rescued and the fourth one scampered up a drainpipe.
Day two of the cat rescue began with plumbers bringing in snake cameras to see if the animal was in there -- it was -- and traps to capture it if it came out. All that was needed was for the cat to cooperate.
"He's in there. He wants to come out. He's just scared," said Carli Gaetano of Upper St. Clair.
Gaetano was at the GetGo on Saw Mill Run Boulevard bright and early. Her mission was not morning coffee but to find a missing kitten.
"I saw the story yesterday on the news and so I came early this morning to try and find the kitten," she said.
On Wednesday, a man driving in from Belle Vernon thought he heard something wrong with his engine. He pulled into GetGo, opened the hood and saw the kittens. One of them scampered off into the drainpipe, where he's been for the last day.
"Got a very interesting phone call this morning to see if we could stop by and help out," said Mike Thomas of Mark Allen Plumbing.
He says Carli Gaetano was the one who gave him a ring to help if he could.
"We're just trying to get him to come out and get him back with his family," Thomas said.
Using a very long camera drain snake, Thomas found the tunneling tabby some 50 feet into the drainpipe.
Thomas and his fellow workers tried their best to coax the feline but, "He had a long journey from Belle Vernon to here under the hood of a car, so he's a fighter," Gaetano said.
And fight he did -- well, actually, he decided to take a nap.
Carlie Gaetano and Ray Nowoicki, who helped save the other cats Wednesday, tried a second option and set up a live trap.
But it turned out a shovel did the trick. Around 4 p.m., Thomas and his crew dug out the end of the pipe and pulled the kitten to safety. Other than being a little dirty and hungry, the cat-turned-mole is all right and has joined its two rescued siblings.