Rescuers Use Drills, Fish To Entice Cat Trapped in Wall for 12 Days
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Rescuers used drills, miniature cameras, cat food, and even a 1-pound raw fish in a desperate effort yesterday to entice an 11-month-old cat named Molly from behind the basement wall of a Greenwich Village delicatessen where she has been trapped for 12 days.
The effort was renewed early in the day when workers heard the cat meowing again after several days of silence that gave rise to fears that she had died. “That was a motivator to try again,” a field director of Animal Care & Control of New York City, a private agency that handles animal rescues on a city contract, Mike Pastore, said.
Mr. Pastore was leading the rescue team trying to locate the peripatetic pussycat with a tiny video camera attached to a plumber’s snake. But the sound of the drill may have spooked Molly to retreat further into the maze under the front wall of the 19th century brick building, which extends back about 40 feet from the sidewalk.
Mr. Pastore said Molly, being a curious sort, apparently slipped into a nar row space between two buildings and fell or crawled through into a hole into the space inside the cellar wall.
The Police and Fire departments also have been on the scene but as of yesterday were leaving the job to Mr. Pastore.
“This is the most difficult case of this kind I’ve ever been on,” Mr. Pastore said, whose agency receives an average of 120 stray or surrendered dogs and cats a day for temporary care and adoption.
Others were pitching in to help. Neighbors left cans of cat food on the steps, and the proprietor of Piccolo Angolo, an Italian restaurant on the corner of Hudson Street, Renato Migliorini, delivered a whole fresh fish called a branzino.
“I hope it will come out because I love cats and dogs,” Mr. Migliorini said.
The fact that the building is landmarked by the city makes breaking into the walls a more delicate proposition, Mr. Pastore said. He said Molly may be blocked from reaching food left for her and it was unclear whether she has access to water dripping from a drain. “We are concerned about dehydration,” he said.
