Last updated Jun 24, 2026
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue / Facebook.com
With kitten season in full swing, hundreds of homeless kittens are flooding shelters – and during the past several weeks, many baby cats have fallen into and gotten lost in storm drains! Thankfully, firefighters around America have been rescuing these kittens and bringing them to safety.
In South Florida at the end of April, an Uber driver passing by heard a kitten’s cries coming from a manhole cover in Fort Lauderdale and called for emergency help. Members of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue rushed to the scene, and one firefighter used a ladder to climb down the shaft beneath the manhole cover. Another firefighter descended into the storm drain from another entrance and pulled the soaked kitten to safety, after the crew used a fire hydrant to float the kitten from one side of the drain to the other. You can watch the remarkable rescue in this video on the Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Facebook page. It’s so sweet when the kitten appears from the water and a firefighter says: “Hi kitty!”
This story has a very happy and fitting ending: The white and black kitten, whom the fire crew named Gutter, found a forever home with one of the firefighters! Sometimes the Cat Distribution System works in very dramatic ways.
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Facebook page
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Facebook page
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Facebook page
Over in Destin, Florida in May, firefighters rescued another lucky kitten stuck in a storm drain. Firefighters from Destin Fire Rescue were called in the late morning about a little kitten stuck in a storm drain along U.S. Route 98. The poor baby was cold, hungry and scared, but then a firefighter went down into the drain and fished out the furry black kitten, after several attempts. The team’s paramedics gave the kitten some medical attention. And then came the most wonderful happy ending: One of Destin’s fire captains, Britt Clark, adopted the kitten! He named the kitten Bee – after the B shift rescuers – and gave the baby to his son.
“Great job to B shift for going the extra mile to certainly save a helpless animal!” says a post on the Destin Fire Rescue Facebook page, with several pictures of the rescue process.
“Thank you! Heroes!” an animal lover commented on the PEOPLE Pets page, which posted a story PEOPLE published about Bee.
In Hampton, Virginia, a family was taking a walk on a late May morning, and the mother and her kids heard a kitten crying from inside a drain pipe. They called for help, and the fire department rushed over to rescue the baby. Firefighters from Hampton Division Fire & Rescue used food to coax out the little black kitten, who was lured to the drain opening and extricated from the drain pipe. You can see adorable pictures of the kitten and the rescue in a Facebook post. The kitten was turned over safely to Hampton Animal Response Team, and we hope he or she already has found a forever home.
In one May case on Long Island, a terrified, soaked tabby kitten was screeching and scratching and biting the rescuer who retrieved the kitten from the storm drain. The poor baby was reacting to extreme fear. Thankfully, the rescuers put the kitten in a carrier and took the baby to safety. In Dallas in May, another tabby kitten got stuck in a storm drain, and rescuers pulled the kitten out in a metal trapping cage.
In Charleroi, Pennsylvania in May, firefighters used a camera and discovered a kitten 30 feet down in a storm drain! They removed the gutter and used a leaf blower to get the black and white kitten out of the storm drain outside a home.
Why do kittens and other tiny animals often get stuck in storm drains? Kittens are very playful and curious and have an insatiable desire to explore things, with no awareness of safety risks. I know from many years of fostering that kittens often crawl into small, tight spaces and get stuck. A homeless kitten born outdoors might fall through the grates of a storm drain while chasing bugs or mice, or just lose footing and slip and fall into the wide gaps. Or, kittens might wander into open pipes that lead into the sewer system.
Often, a frightened kitten startled by something dangerous, like predators, may flee into the nearest dark opening it can find, which is often a storm drain. A kitten in a storm drain may accidentally get separated from his mother and littermates and get lost in the labyrinth, and he is discovered and rescued only when someone hears his cries through a storm drain.
Sadly, a stray mother cat may have given birth and is raising her kittens in the dark and quiet pipes beneath the streets because it seemed safer than any options on land above. That appears to be the case with this recent moving video from Flatbush Cats in Brooklyn, New York, where rescuers use a grabber to lift two kittens out of a storm drain near the subway, and the mother came out on her own. I am so glad this family was rescued – watch this precious story!
With this epidemic of lost, vulnerable kittens getting stuck in storm drains, we encourage cat lovers to keep their ears open when outside for the sound of a crying kitten underground. If you hear meows coming from a storm drain, please call 911 and rescuers from your local fire department can save the animal’s life. We send heartfelt thanks to firefighters, and to animal shelters and rescue groups who take in these rescued kittens and adopt them out to loving homes!
