There's an old song from the 19th century about a missing cat that goes, "The cat came back, the very next day. The cat came back, we thought he was a goner."
When a 14-pound cat named Kilo didn't come back to his home in Ross for two days, his owner, Michelle Battelle, and her family tried not to think the worst, that he was a goner. But where was he?
That mystery was solved Monday morning when a neighbor heard Kilo's meows coming from inside a five-inch drainage pipe on Glenwood Avenue in Ross.
"How a 14-pound cat managed to get inside a five-inch diameter pipe is pretty remarkable," said the Marin Humane Society's Carrie Harrington. "Why he went in we don't know. Maybe he was chased by something or maybe he was chasing something."
What they did know was that Kilo wasn't coming out without some help. That's where rescue officers Lisa Nausin, Adrienne Russo and Steve Hill come in. They arrived on the scene with a small camera that's designed specifically for tight situations like Kilo's.
With the camera on a snake-like wire, they slid it into the pipe and could see that Kilo was facing backward, wedged about six feet from the nearest opening.
"They saw that they could nudge him with the camera and he could move backward ever so slightly," Harrington explained.
When Kilo got close enough, officer Nausin stuck her arm down the pipe, grabbed him by the tail and yanked him out.
"He wasn't a happy camper at first, but he was excited to see his owner, who was standing by," Harrington said.
After the hour-long rescue operation, Kilo was frightened and in shock, but otherwise OK. After being treated by a vet for dehydration, he was back home that night.
"The officers saved his life," Michelle Battelle said. "We are so thankful. We greatly admire their handling of our scary situation."
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: