Should have listened to my own advice!

Incident number 20230623001. Pumping gas at the Davie Costco I hear someone say from behind me “You on the clock?” I didn’t know the guy was talking to me until the Costco employee came into my view when he asked me again, “Are you on the clock?” I’m thinking to myself, why is he asking me that? Then I remembered the H.E.A.R. signage on the 4Runner (wagon). I answer “Not really, what do you have?”

The Costco employee who I’ll only identify here by the initial of his first name J. J says they were trying to capture a kitten that was moving around the area where there was heavy traffic entering the fuel pumping station. They had chased it until it had disappeared into the body of a car parked next to the store. I told him I’d take a look as soon as I finished refueling.

With the organization still in the rebuild process I don’t have the wagon outfitted for animal rescue incidents because it is permanently set up for other purposes that don’t involve animal transport. I had my personal carry flashlight and rain jacket. I took a look and could only spot what appeared to be a small area of fur about the size of a nickel. The area under the car was to small to properly look around or work under without elevating it. The other problem was we did not know who the car belonged to and needed the owners permission to be hands on with the car.

I left my contact information and advised to contact me if they located the owner and the owner was willing to cooperate with the extrication. About a half hour later I received a call from J that he had located the car’s owner and the had permission to attempt to extricate the cat. This would be a good place to mention my on-scene mindset so you can understand what happens next. I was thinking that the cat was not in the body of the car and had never went there and had kept running to another location without them seeing it or it had decided to come out after the activity in the area had calmed down.

Once I had arrived back on scene the owner and J met with me at the car. I had the owner back the car up onto the curb so the car would be elevated and the rear would be at a good angle for me to get a clearer view of the undercarriage. As soon as the car was in place the parking brake was applied along with a wheel chock and cribbing to prevent my head from getting squashed. Cribbing in place I went right to looking for the kitten.

That’s where things went sideways. My mistake as we’ll soon see was not setting up the crate and handling gloves. A standard operating procedure (SOP) I’ve developed over the last 20 years or so. I began searching the suspension system and axel. Anywhere that a kitten could lodge itself. There were several places but no kitten. That was the drivers side. I can’t simply search one side and call it quits. The entire area has to be searched. What I did find to be useless was my aging fiber optic inspection scope. The light no longer works and it fogs up when the humidity is high.

I moved my tarp over to the passenger side and began looking across the back bumper area until I reached the corner panel. I moved the tarp a little more, plopped myself down onto the tarp and immediately saw the kittens body in full view. Took a moment to assess how to extricate it then realized my mistake. Had I been following my own SOP’s, the ones I teach and hold others to, I would have instantly put on the gloves and attempted to capture the kitten. However, I had to return to the wagon to fetch the animal handling gloves and crate. Right where I had left them.

By the time I got back and had the gloves on and crate staged the kitten had moved. I began the search over starting from the original starting point back to where I had spotted the kitten before. I tried the inspection scope but it wouldn’t do what I needed. My best guess is the kitten had moved deeper into the bumper panel out of sight. The only other option would have been to start dissembling the rear of the car.

In my experience with these type of incidents is it is better to leave the animal alone and if possible it will extricate itself from the situation when the area is calm and quiet. Sometimes they force themselves into an area they cannot get out of on their own. In that case part of a vehicle will have to be dissembled. The car today had spaces that were easy to enter or exit. The car owner was advised that the kitten was still there and would most likely exit the car overnight.

I could say lesson learned. This one should be labeled lesson learned from the past smacks me in the head to remind me. There is no way to know for sure I would have been able to get the kitten out the way I had planned. One thing is for sure, I’ll never know because I didn’t follow my own advice.

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Big Boss- Rescue Chief/Founder

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