Amazing: 9-year-old girl crawls into filthy storm drain to rescue 6 kittens

Picture of Bailey, a 9-year-old girl after rescuing 6 kittens from a storm drain
Picture of Bailey, a 9-year-old girl after rescuing 6 kittens from a storm drain. Photo: Bailey’s mother: April Canup Bradbury.
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

This is an amazing cat rescue which definitely stands out. In the video you see a sweet-looking 9-year-old girl with a large bow in her blond hair, wearing socks without shoes, crawling backwards out of a small, storm drain clutching a kitten. Her mother calls out. You can hear the concern in her mother’s voice.

Kitten rescue from storm drain by 9 year old girl and family
Kitten rescue from storm drain by 9 year old girl and family

“My sweet little 9 year old, Bailey, sprang into action. Needless to say, after about an hour and along with the help of her dad, they managed to rescue all 6 kittens…” (April Canup Bradbury – Bailey’s mom)

Bailey used her mother’s smartphone as a torch. Her mother says, “Don’t get my phone wet!”. I can understand that as this narrow drain looks horribly wet and dirty. An adult wouldn’t get into it. It took a child to carry out this awesome kitten rescue.


Please don’t forget to turn on the sound – use the icon, bottom-right of video..


Fearlessly, Bailey goes back into it to rescue all 6 kittens (as mentioned, there seems to have been four in this rescue you see in the video but 6 in total). The kittens were screaming for help. It’s tense. Jan (a PoC contributor) tells me that four kittens were found floating on a piece of Styrofoam in an overflowing Cabarrus County creek in North Carolina, USA. It seems they were washed into the drain where they became jammed.

Bailey’s mother says, on Facebook, that they arrived at Logan for a family dinner. When they got out of the car they heard the screaming kittens.

Animal Control would not help

They called the fire department who called Animal Control. Animal Control refused to help saying ‘it’s part of life’ – more like it would have been a part of death if Bailey and her family hadn’t stepped in to rescued them. Well done to the family and particularly to heroic Bailey, a go-getting girl with a bow in her hair and courage in her heart.

If you’d like to see the whole family (they all deserve praise) please visit their Facebook page by clicking on this link.



Useful tag. Click to see the articles: Cat behavior

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