Roseville SureWest Employees Rescue Kitten

It was an all-day effort, but a kitten was eventually rescued from a 12-foot pipe at SureWest Communications headquarters in Roseville early Friday morning.

A SureWest employee first heard the kitten’s cries around 6:30 a.m. Thursday morning, July 25, according to Anne Chacon, SureWest communications manager. The employee told her supervisor, who contacted maintenance crews. That’s when the lengthy rescue effort started.

“They spent all day yesterday trying various methods,” Chacon said.

SureWest employees, maintenance crews and animal patrol officers tried dropping a rope down into the hole, hoping the kitten would climb up the rope and out of the hole; they lowered glue traps down, which seemed promising when they were able to pull the kitten about half way up but the glue wasn’t strong enough; and they tried using a high-powered vacuum to pull the kitten up into a net; but none of those methods were successful.

Roseville Rooters came after hours, around 10 p.m. Thursday, and brought a snake camera used in plumbing that helped rescuers see the kitten, Chacon said.

What eventually proved successful was lowering a wire screen down into the hole. Employees left for a few hours hoping the kitten would climb out. The kitten eventually fell down into another pipe that led to the pump room in the basement, Chacon said, where employees were able to rescue the kitten.

They found the kitten “wet and covered in grease,” cleaned it off and brought it back to where the mother cat and other kittens were, Chacon said. That was around 1:30 a.m. Friday.

Another SureWest employee volunteers as a foster parent for cats at the Placer SPCA and plans to take the family of kittens and the mother home to care for them until they are adoptable, Chacon said.

Chacon said SureWest employees were curiously checking in on the kitten’s status during breaks yesterday.

“Everyone was anxiously awaiting” for the kitten to be rescued,” Chacon said.

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