Firefighters pull kitten from sewer

TAMPA - A young kitten used up one of its nine lives Friday when it somehow became trapped deep in a storm drain.

Passers-by noticed some frantic meowing coming from the sewer drain in front of an auto body shop on North Florida Avenue.

"A gentleman was driving a bicycle by the shop and he said there were sounds of a cat coming from the storm drain out in front of the shop. We tried to see if we could see it but I couldn't see anything," recalled Brian Doughty, the manager of the Econo Auto Painting body shop.

When the meowing persisted, Doughty called firefighters, who told him to call police. They told him to call the Humane Society. It took some persistence, but finally a crew from Hillsborough County Fire Rescue arrived on the scene.

It didn’t take them long to lift the little kitten out. Acting Capt. Sean van Atter climbed into the 12-foot-deep drain, which he described as "just dirty, muddy, hot."

"Sometimes -- it's weird to say -- but sometimes animals affect you in more ways than people, in certain conditions. It's good to know that someone heard him whining down there and we were able to get him out," he said afterwards.

The scrawny, wet kitten, meanwhile, was taken to Florida Veterinary Specialists to be checked out, rescuers said.