Florida residents rescue cat stuck in storm drain

NAPLES, Fla. — Neighbors in a Southwest Florida city banded together to help rescue a cat that was lodged in a storm drain Thursday night.

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The cat, now named Mistletoe in honor of the holiday season, was discovered earlier this week when residents in a Naples suburb heard the cat’s cries under their feet, WINK-TV reported.

“When you hear that cat crying like that, nothing, it’s like a baby crying,” Pelican Bay resident Laurie Bruckmann told the television station. “You just can’t say no.”

Another resident, Mark Rathbun, celebrated his birthday on Wednesday by spending time in a manhole trying to retrieve the trapped feline, WSVN-TV reported.

“It’s an animal. You gotta do it, absolutely,” Rathbun told WINK. “I mean, it’s Christmastime, the poor cat’s crying, you know, you want to save one of God’s creatures.”

After trying to extricate the cat without success, neighbors called Collier County officials for help. The officials dug up the road and were able to find Mistletoe on Thursday night.

“The cat was actually sitting on top of a pipe, and as soon as the concrete came up, it just jumped, and I grabbed it,” Marshal Miller, superintendent of road maintenance for Collier County, told WINK. “There’s 100,000 ways it could have gone wrong, but we got it right tonight, and I’m really proud of the crew that did it because they’re the ones who did all the work to get it out. It was a great team effort. The entire community came together to rescue what was a cat in a drain. It’s a nice Christmas story.”

Mistletoe will no longer be out in the cold. One of the Pelican Bay residents adopted her, according to the television station.

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