The Bon Accord and Sturgeon County Fire Departments had an interesting call from a local non-profit.
Second Chance Animal Rescue Society (SCARS) takes in homeless pets and looks after them until they can place them in loving homes.
On Sunday (Apr. 24), the group took in a feral mother cat and five kittens, who were only 12 days old. They gave them to a foster mother who set them up in a room. However, the mother cat was able to escape from the room and got into the furnace vents.
Foster mother Kyla Pleinis called the fire department for help. The firefighters spent a few hours trying to find the cat and get her out, opening up the vents and trying to find her with heat-seeking equipment and cameras.
"Everybody was super great," she said. "One guy ran home for a tablet or component to try to get the camera working; they just really went above and beyond."
After a while, they decided to set up a humane live trap with some food and the firefighters left to let the house get quiet.
"Not before we took a nice photo with at least four of the kittens," she laughed.
After a few more hours, the mother cat got caught in the trap and was brought back to her babies.
Pleinis said the cats have been in a kennel for a while now while the mother cat calms down, and she is taping her vents shut, so it doesn't happen again.
