Why We Love WeHo: County and City Workers Team Up to Rescue Stranded Kitten from Storm Drain

There was an all-hands-on-deck kitten rescue yesterday, in the storm drain that runs beneath a major intersection in West Hollywood.

A call first came in at approximately 5 a.m. that a tiny male kitten was trapped in a pipe that runs beneath one of the busiest intersections in the region: La Cienega and Santa Monica boulevards. At first, firefighters from the Los Angeles County Fire Department responded to the scene, but they were unable to access the kitten, who had worked his way into a small section of pipe.

At approximately 11 a.m. on Wednesday, a crew of rescue workers from the City of West Hollywood’s Department of Public Works began a collaborative rescue operation with teams from Los Angeles County Flood Control, the Los Angeles County Fire Department and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. When they began to call out to the cat, they heard him meowing desperately. The rescue team blocked off sections of the intersection, removed storm drain grates and manhole covers, and went underground in search of the meowing kitten.

Despite a tempting tin of cat food, the kitten was too scared to move toward rescuers from his small corner of the drain pipe. In the end, the crew used a flexible rod and bucket to safely catch the trapped kitten; crews were able to safely transport him to the Amanda Foundation — the only animal charity in the area with a full-service veterinary practice — for a full check-up.

It was love at first sight, too. After the kitten was given his clean bill of health, Daniel Mick, the City of West Hollywood’s Code Compliance supervisor, who helped lead the rescue efforts, adopted the kitten as a permanent member of his family. He has been named “Stormy.”
Stormy’s story has taken the Internet by storm; today a collection of photos of the rescued kitten hit number-one in Reddit’s Los Angeles subreddit.