Kevin Atkins’ deft handling of a vacuum truck suction hose has earned the Roto-Rooter of Columbus, Ohio, excavator and pumper praise from feline fanciers across the country.
Responding to an emergency call of a cat stuck down a pipe at a Ziebart auto repair shop June 18, Atkins sized up the situation and used his pump operator skills to rescue the frightened kitten meowing six feet down a 4-inch abandoned electrical conduit.
When Atkins arrived at the Ziebart shop, the kitten had been trapped in the pipe for several days and humane officers called to the scene didn’t know how to rescue it. Atkins had a few ideas how to get the crying cat to safety.
“First I took a RIDGID handheld camera and pushed it down the pipe to see the position of the cat, which way he was facing,’’ Atkins said, noting that the cat had huddled in an empty junction box adjacent to the pipe. The cat was facing his back to the pipe, so Atkins thought he could clamp a suction hose onto the cat’s rear end and pull it out. Atkins grabbed a 2-inch suction hose on his 2005 International 4300 service truck with a 2,500-gallon Progress Tank aluminum tank built by Tri-State Tank and a Masport pump.
“I turned the pump on idle, producing very low suction, and lowered the hose, waiting to hear the tone of the vacuum change,’’ he explained. He knew he’d be able to tell from the pump sound whether he’d grabbed onto the cat. On the second trip down with the hose, the suction clamped the cat to the wand and he pulled it to safety.
“There was enough suction to get ahold of him, but I didn’t hurt him,’’ Atkins said, noting that everyone at the shop was thrilled with the rescue. Atkins was at the shop for 10-15 minutes, then got back in his truck and returned to the Roto-Rooter office.
End of story? Nope.
“A few days later, the news people wanted to talk to me, and I ended up on the national news,’’ said an astonished Atkins. It was the most unusual thing to happen to him in 20 years on the job. “Now I’m never hearing the end of it and we seem to be getting more calls for stuck animals.’’
Atkins’ heroics spread from the local news to the national news, and the story stays alive on YouTube.com and in blogs by animal lovers who laud his efforts. The kitten has since been adopted by a Ziebart employee.
“I’m just glad I was able to help an animal in trouble,’’ Atkins said.
