Hammond Sanitary & Residents Pull Together To Rescue Kitten
On Wednesday evening a group of concerned citizens put together a rescue mission for a kitten that had been stuck in a sewer pipe for at least two days in the Hessville neighborhood of Hammond.
Hammond resident, Shawn Lannin, said over the last 48 hours he kept hearing “meows” coming from an unknown location near 169th & Arizona but wasn’t able to pinpoint where exactly the kitten in distress was. Come to find out from social media he was not the only one hearing the cries from the kitten.
After numerous attempts by many to find the kitten in the area, Lannin wanted to make one last stop after work over in the area to try to locate the kitten. When he arrived their was a few other residents looking down a storm drain where they believed the kitten was trapped about 8 feet down. The couple said they had reached out to 911 but no one was available to come out at the time of the call due to pending priority calls in the area.
The residents decided they needed to act now utilizing a fishing net down the hole in hopes to scoop the kitten up. Unfortunately the kitten was having it and continued to hide under the roadway running back and fourth under the street.
Around that time (7:00 PM) Hammond Sanitary District Sewer Maintenance employees caught wind of a man laying in the street trying to remove the manhole cover. The Hammond Sanitary District was called a bit earlier but their plan was to evaluate the situation in the morning when daylight was available, however Sanitary District Maintenance employee Jack Smith was able to put a small team together to assist the kitten as soon as possible because of the safety issue it posed to the residents out there at the time. Smith called out a few trucks for traffic control and requested a Vactor Truck to flush the pipe structure since the kitten was going back and fourth underneath 169th. “At the time the kitten would not let anyone help it,”Smith said. Once the water started flowing from the Vactor Truck the kitten ran back to the open manhole cover and was able to be pulled out safely. “We were just happy to help,” Smith said.
“Tonight literally restored my faith in humanity,” Lannin said on a social media post. “Such a heartwarming experience to have strangers come together and risk their safety for a poor little kitten.” Lannin has taken the kitten home and named it, Lucky.
