In one of the happiest endings on the North Fork, a kitten saved from a storm drain recently was adopted by his rescuer.
William Park of Coastline Cesspool in Peconic brought the purring kitten home on Wednesday.
“It’s wonderful,” said Gabrielle Stroup of the North Fork Animal Welfare League Wednesday. “We were hoping that’s the way it was going to happen.”
Park, she said, “called the day after and asked what he would have to do to adopt the kitten. He was under a lot of pressure from his girls.”
The 10-week-old kitten used up one of his nine lives in late September, when he was rescued from a storm drain behind the Southold 7-Eleven by some good-hearted angels who came to his aid.
According to Gillian Wood, executive director of the North Fork Animal Welfare League, she received a call on September 29 at 8 p.m. from Southold Town police, about the kitten, stuck in the storm drain.
Wood called NFAWL staffer Stroup and the pair set out to save the four-footed feline in distress.
When they got there, because it was dark, they couldn’t remove the kitten but made sure the drain was empty, diverting all the water so that the pipe would stay dry, Wood said. In addition, they put food outside and left wood, to help the kitten climb out.
Next, Wood said she called Park and his crew at Coastline Cesspool in Peconic, as well as Jeff Standish and Scott Kessler from the Southold Town Department of Public Works. She also thanked Jeremy from 7-Eleven and Roy Schelin from North Fork Sanitation, all of whom came to the rescue.
Park, she said, had a camera that could be inserted into the drain. At first, Wood said, the playful kitten kept “hopscotching” over the camera but finally, they were able to create a simulated Q-tip and pull the camera out, with the kitten brought to safety, too.
“It takes cooperation to do any kind of rescue,” Wood said, thanking all involved for a happy ending. “What a fabulous community rescue effort.”
