Curiosity (Almost) Killed the Cat: How school project turned into a rescue mission
Rescuers Save Trapped Kitty
Sunday, Nov. 19: 1:50 p.m.
I was kneeling on the ground filming feral cats when I heard meows coming from inside of a locked orange shipping container.
I was with Nanci Brunning, a colony caregiver, shadowing her for my final project while she monitored and fed the feral cats she cares for.
After our third stop of Brunning’s route, Brunning fed several feral cats located outside of a private business. The area had a dumpster, a fence with another property behind it, and a couple of orange and blue shipping containers. Brunning left briefly to retrieve her forgotten water bottle that provides water for the cats.
While she was gone and all was quiet, I began to hear a cat meowing. The desperate meows sounded like they were coming from inside of the shipping container.
Once Nanci returned, I told her what I had heard. We both searched the area and sat in silence waiting to hear the cat’s meows.
We didn’t hear anything. We eventually left to feed the rest of the hungry cats on her route.
Brunning is a part of a volunteer team that takes care of several colonies in the Rexdale area. She feeds on certain days, while the other volunteers, Tiina Walker and Alex Fortais, feed the rest of the days.
While a cat can be seen sitting outside of the container, we didn’t realize there was another cat trapped inside.
Tuesday, Nov 21: 9:05 p.m.
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I was unable to cope with the potential idea that there was a cat stuck in the shipping container. Late Tuesday night, I sent a text to Walker, the other caregiver I had met and who also feeds the same cats. I asked her to keep an ear out for any cat meowing that could be trapped in the container. She told me she had checked the container, along with Fortais, but had not heard anything.
Friday, Nov. 24: 8:59 p.m.
Four days later, I got a text from Walker. “Kate, you were right.”
Fortais had heard the cat crying on Friday night. Luckily, Alex and Walker found the container open, but the cat was hiding behind 6 foot tall shelves filled with equipment. Walker and Alex set up a camera and trap inside the container to try to remove the cat from the container. The two women also left food and water for the cat, but had to come back in the morning.
In the morning, Walker returned for a stake out to wait for the cat to come out, in the cold. Walker says the cat had eaten the food she had left the night before, but there was still no sign of the cat.
After hours of waiting, a black cat finally creeps out of the container, hungry to eat the food that had been put out that morning.
“We were all on pins and needles,” says Walker.
Walker says that the fact that the cat was meowing was a sign that the cat needed help.
According to Alley Cat Allies, a volunteer organization that works to protect cats, feral cats don’t typically meow at humans.
“I’m confident I’ve never heard the cat meow before or since,” Walker says.
Walker says the rescue mission was a group effort.
“It was just really lucky because it could have ended up really tragically for that poor cat had we not been able to coax him out.”
