Jenna Hannah — a Memphis, Tennessee, resident — stopped by a Walmart last weekend to buy new tires for her granddaughter’s car when she heard a screaming kitten from below street level.
Hannah relayed to WREG that, upon further investigation, she realized that a kitten had somehow fallen into a storm drain within the Walmart parking lot.
“I could hear the cat cries all the way into Walmart tire center,” said Hannah. “That’s how loud she was screaming.”
Not knowing how to retrieve the kitten from the drain herself, she called 911. The dispatcher told her “that’s not something we do,” but Hannah insisted.
“I said can the fire department do it because you see them on TV rescuing cats from trees, and she said she would have to call me back.”
K9 Officer Beau Dickson To The Rescue
Hannah waited patiently, telling WREG, that she had no intention of leaving the cat trapped. Eventually, K9 Officer Beau Dickson was dispatched to the scene of the fallen feline, and Hannah recognized him as a kindred spirit.
“He said he had a couple of cats at home with the canine. So, I know he is an animal lover, too,” said Hannah. “He heard her cry, and hearing something like that, if you are any kind of pet lover, you just can’t walk away from that.”
From there, Hannah described the officer’s method for retrieving the kitten as “cat fishing.” He lowered an extremely long dog leash, fashioned into a lasso, down into the drain to haul the kitten up with.
It took the officer a couple of tries, resizing the loop at the end of the leash, to successfully position it underneath the kitten’s arms and around her tiny body.
Meanwhile, Hannah’s granddaughter stood by, capturing the entire rescue on camera for Facebook; a video that has since garnered thousands of likes.
Kitten Named ‘Miss Dickson’ After Hero Officer
(Picture Credit: Oleg Mishutin/Getty Images)
As soon as the officer hauled the kitten up, Hannah took off into the Walmart for cat food, not knowing how long the kitten had been trapped. “She was starved to death,” Hannah said.
While she wasn’t expecting to bring home a new pet that day and relayed that she couldn’t really afford one, she decided to keep the kitten all the same. Luckily, Hannah had a bit of help with this, as a fellow cat lover saw her granddaughter’s video and donated four bags of kitten food.
Now safe and away from pesky storm drains, the kitten has a new home, a new companion, and a new name. Hannah named her Miss Dickson, after the officer who saved her life.
CatTime has a full guide on what to do if you find kittens here! Check it out in case you come across kittens in need like Hannah did.
Do you think the lasso leash trick was a clever way to rescue the kitten? What would you do if you heard a kitten calling from a storm drain? Let us know in the comments below!