Happy ending for cat trapped in drain pipe for days
Posted: Jan 11, 2014 8:32 AM Updated: Jan 11, 2014 1:35 PM
By Nick Bade - email
Reporting by Maia Belay
FINDLAY, OH (Toledo News Now) - A dramatic rescue effort that spanned more than 18 hours had a happy ending Friday when an elderly cat was safely pulled from a drainage pipe in Findlay.
The cat, likely trying to find a warm place to sleep during this week's brutally cold temperatures, ice and snow, found himself stuck inside a downspout outside Donnell Middle School. Vets later said the male cat is between 12 and 14 years old, and has likely been on his own for a while, with scars from being on the street.
The downspout descends from the roof of the school below ground about 4 feet, and then turns horizontally and runs about 50 feet to the street. The cat, later named Piper, was stuck at the turn near the foundation of the building, a few feet below ground.
Unable to crawl out of the pipe, the cat began to cry out for help.
It's unclear how long piper was stuck, but his cries were heard by a woman who lives near the school sometime Wednesday evening.
Susan Orians says she heard Piper meowing while calling for her cat. She says she following the meowing across the street to Donnell Middle School, where she discovered the sound was coming from inside a downspout on the outside of the building.
"The poor animal was howling, it would get louder when you called for it," said Orians.
Heartbroken for the trapped animal, Orians made a few phone calls and got Donnell's principal and animal control officers on the scene. She says they worked to see if they could cut the pipe, but later left the school. That's when Susan contacted Toledo News Now and sent us video of the cat responding to her by meowing from inside the pipe.
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