Suffolk police save weeks-old kitten trapped in PVC fence post

The loud cries of a weeks-old kitten saved the animal after it became trapped inside a PVC fence post.

Pat Legaz of Manorville heard a sound emanating from somewhere in her yard last Sunday, Aug. 29, but couldn’t quite place where it was coming from. The next day she followed what she realized was a meow to a fence post at the corner of her property. Legaz peered inside the hollow post where the cap was missing, a space no bigger than six inches by six inches, and saw a tiny cat had gotten itself into a precarious position.

"I thought, ‘oh no, there can’t be something in there,'" said Legaz, a retired elementary school teacher at South Street School in the Eastport-South Manor School District. "Sure enough, at the bottom, she was just crying away."

Legaz called the Riverhead-based nonprofit rescue group SAVES and volunteer Linda Steuerwald, who is also from Manorville, arrived on the scene.

"You could just see these two little beady eyes and this kitten down there screaming at the top of its lungs, begging for help," said Steuerwald, a retired art teacher at Dayton Avenue School, which is also in the ESM school district. "It was a good six feet down."

Suffolk police arrived on the scene and officers using a pole with a loop at the end were able to essentially lasso the kitten up the length of the post.

Piper, who earned her name because of her surprising lung power, is estimated to be about three weeks old, Steuerwald said. She was covered in fleas and dehydrated after the rescue. She was taken to a local veterinarian for an exam, but has been recuperating at Steuerwald’s home ever since and will be there until she is ready for adoption.

An application for adoption can be made by visiting savesnorthfork.com.

"This little thing was a survivor and it is doing great," Steuerwald said. "You do it all for the love of the animals and getting them saved."

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.