UAE: Heroic 18-hour rescue saves kitten trapped in Abu Dhabi drain for days

It took a group of seven cat lovers nearly 18 hours and several inter-emirate trip to heroically band together and rescue a little kitten, presumed to be not more than two months, who was stuck with no food or water in a drain pipe for at least three days.

German tourist Ferdinand was in the UAE to celebrate his birthday and chose to ring in his special day by feeding some stray cats in Abu Dhabi at midnight. As he drove around, he heard the pained cries of a kitten. It was stuck inside a pipe which opened out into a deeply dug drain hole.

“I asked a neighbour about it, and he said the kitten has been crying for at least three days,” he told Khaleej Times. “The drain hole was filled with sewage water, and I did not have the means to rescue the cat myself. Since I didn’t know anyone else in the city, I texted well-known cat rescuer Dina who runs the DubaiStreetKitties page on Instagram.” 

The rescue team

The time was 11pm on Friday, May 16. As soon as the message went out, cat lovers in the country swung to action. Karen England was preparing to go to bed in her Dubai home when she saw the message. “I am not a big fan of driving in general but when I saw the message, I knew that I had to help,” she said. “I have some long ladders, which I felt would be useful in this case.”

Karen with Lucky 

By 2am, a small group of cat rescuers were on the spot, doing everything they could to rescue the kitten. The group was unable to coax it out as it was scared and cowered inside the long pipe. Karen climbed into the hole and began removing the sewage water. “It was quite deep and if the kitten rushed out of the pipe, it would fall into the water and drown,” she said. “So, we had to be sure that the hole was safe for whenever she decided to climb out.”

More than five hours later, the hole was empty of water, but the kitten was still too scared to come out. The rescuers, disheveled and exhausted, headed home for a few hours of sleep. However, before they left, Kalina- another rescuer, created a makeshift ladder by tying together a clothes stand and some towels with ribbons. It took her more than three hours to craft it.

The rescuers then decided to check on the cat every two hours, but they had no luck as it didn’t come out. Abu Dhabi residents Galina and her husband volunteered as they lived closest to the spot.

Municipality call

One of the rescuers reached out to the Abu Dhabi municipality, which sent out a team to the spot. “They were really professional and quick,” said Galina. “They were able to rescue the cat in just five minutes.”

Lucky, soon after he was rescued

Galina and her husband accompanied Karen to Dubai where they took the kitten to Paws and Claws veterinary clinic in JVC. The clinic did a complete checkup and Xray on the kitten for free and found that it was healthy. “Luckily he is healthy, had a normal temperature and surprisingly little dehydration despite being stuck in the drainage pipe for at least 3 days,” said Karen.

Having found the kitten on his birthday, Ferdinand bonded with it during his time with it. He survived 3-4 days in a hole without fresh water and food,” he said. “He was so strong. I don’t want him to ever fight again every day on the street to survive. I want to give him the best life in a nice cat family. I have named him Lucky, and he is now with Karen. I have to wait for him to get a bit older, vaccinated and microchipped, so that I can bring him to Germany.”

Karen said the area where Lucky was found had a lot of stray cats and needed urgent attention to spread awareness about the Trap-Neuter-Rescue (TNR) program. Earlier this year, the Animal Welfare Abu Dhabi (AWAD) group was formed to safeguard the cat population in Abu Dhabi. One of their campaigns is a community care program that aims to trap cats at feeding stations to neuter, vaccinate and microchip them before returning them back. This would help to control the stray cat population in the country.