by Eric Sitgreaves
(Muncie, Indiana, 47302)
A few months back I was at my job at GM in Indianapolis when I noticed some kittens that had been born inside of a material rack. Now these racks are quite large, and obviously large enough to house these little girls inside of the hole in which the fork lift forks enter, if one can picture that.
My quest to rescue them took 3 days, one trap, and an iPhone app that makes cat sounds. The first kitten was easy as I lured her out with my phone. She stuck her head out and I grabbed her … Simple.
Later that night I tried the second one, I put food outside of the rack, snuck up on her and grabbed her. I then juggled her, she fought me, slipped out of my hands and retreated back into hiding. My shift ended and I went home.
The following day I used a small squirrel trap to get her and succeeded. I simply put salmon in the trap, returned and there she was. Now for the last kitten, I only thought there were two at that time because I had never seen the last one until I heard her while setting up the trap for number two.
Once again the shift ended, I went home determined as ever to catch her as I had her sisters and wouldn’t think of abandoning her, but! she was a challenge needless to say. The kittens were located in an area of the plant called Rack Storage, where racks are stacked and lined up orderly for line use when needed.
I tried every trick that had been done to lure the first two kittens and she would not fall for any of them, she wouldn’t respond, eat, etc. So I decided to move all the racks out including the one she was calling home. After doing so I gently picked the Rack up with my fork lift, I then leveled the holes to a height around my waistline so I could look in and reach for her better.
Ah… there she was! But picture the base of this rack as being the size of a small car which has fork lift openings on all four sides, and I was already in two of them with my forks. I could see her silhouette through the holes and tried to fish her out with a broomstick and had no luck as she kept running back and forth in the tiny corridors of the rack. I blocked all of them but one and had her trapped, now the only problem was that she had entered the one where my fork was supporting the rack..and she miraculously wedged herself under the fork and the base which there was no way to pull the fork out or she would be crushed.
I then decided to enlist a helper to stay at the fork end and push a long piece of rubber tubing into the sides of the fork hoping it would reach her and scare her towards the side hole where I could grab her, yet she seemed to proudly elude the effort for what seemed hours.
After several attempts we finally pushed her forward of the fork where I could quickly nab her… and I mean quickly. Tiny kittens in small places are a pain in the butt after experiencing this little girl.
I then carried her in my lunch bag the rest of the shift before I took her home. My wife gladly bathed all of the factory grime off of her, just like the others and made them all smell girly.
With that said, we now have 3 terroristic kittens (growing fast and healthy) in our home who make us laugh everyday.
We absolutely love them!!!
Update: Here are pics of the kittens. Well, not so much kittens anymore as they are growing fast.
Eric
