A Furry Firehouse Rescue

Firetrucks - Rescue underwayA San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department staff member certainly wasn’t expecting to be surprised during a routine inspection of a fire engine at the Fire Academy’s training facility. As he was checking the water hoses of the truck, he started to hear tiny meows. Opening the hatch to the hose compartment of the vehicle, he spied five sets of kitten eyes staring up at him.

Kittens on fire hose inside the truckA call was immediately placed to Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA for assistance, and we arrived on scene within 20 minutes. Our rescue staff looked for the mama cat, but she was nowhere to be found and there didn’t appear to be any traces of her. The defenseless underaged kittens were in dire need of rescue, so we devised a plan to safely remove the litter from their precarious spot.

As the metal chamber to the hose compartment was being opened, one of our staff guarded the door while our other staff climbed up the side of the truck and plucked each teeny kitten one by one from the compartment and placed them in a kennel. After one last scan for Mom, the little motherless kittens were brought safely to our shelter for evaluation.

PHS SPCA Staff with kittensThankfully all the kittens were in good health and they are now all with a foster care volunteer where they will be bottle fed and cared for until they are old enough to be adopted. These kittens are just five of the more than 5,700 animals PHS/SPCA rescues every single year.

You can ensure our lifesaving work with animals continues well into the future when you include a gift to Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA in your estate plan. Contact Lisa Van Buskirk at 650-340-7022, Ext. 327 or Lvanbuskirk@phs-spca.org to get started.