“Seeing the cat alive was the greatest feeling in the world,” animal rescuer John DeBacker said after bringing Lola to safety and reuniting her with her owners
Credit: John Debacker/via AP
NEED TO KNOW
- A video captured the moment animal rescuer John DeBacker brought a cat to safety after five days trapped behind a wall
- The cat, Lola, slipped beneath a floorboard as her family prepared to leave their New York apartment earlier this month, later falling behind the wall
- Lola, who was trapped upside down and eating insulation during the ordeal, has been reunited with her owners and is receiving veterinary care
A dramatic video shows the moment a cat was rescued from behind the wall of an apartment after she’d been trapped there for five days.
The cat, Lola, was panicked when her owners began preparing to move out of their second-floor apartment in Long Island, New York, first ducking under a floorboard on Sept. 4.
Her owners called John DeBacker, who has been rescuing cats for more than 15 years, for help.
He set a trap with food and cameras, but she avoided it when she came out at night, per the Associated Press. Then, she stopped showing up altogether, and DeBacker realized she’d fallen and was stuck behind a wall on the first floor of the Long Island building.
Credit: John Debacker/via AP
“Five days after we lost contact, we’ve discovered the cat inside the wall on the main level of the house,” he said.
The cat was trapped upside down, eating insulation and gradually becoming weaker.
Then, on Sept. 18, two weeks after Lola first escaped, DeBacker was able to work with a contractor to cut a hole in the wall with an electric drill. She appeared nervous, so they swapped it out for a quieter drill.
In the video footage, DeBacker, sporting his “Catman” T-shirt, could be seen reaching through the hole for Lola’s hind legs. He moved into a standing position and slowly pulled her out, placing the cat into a crate.
Credit: John Debacker/via AP
“Safe!” a woman cried out, with sighs of relief from other people also heard in the video, per the AP.
“It’s pretty miraculous that the cat survived for five days without food or water,” DeBacker said later. “When the cat was upside down, all the blood was rushing to the head.”
Credit: John Debacker/via AP
Lola is back with her family, who brought her to a veterinarian. She had some insulation in her stomach, which had to be removed, and she’s had a few follow-up visits due to poor appetite.
“Seeing the cat alive was the greatest feeling in the world,” DeBacker said, recalling the ordeal. “I was just so relieved, as was the owners.”
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The animal rescuer, who has four cats himself, also urged other cat owners who are getting ready to move home to secure their cats first and foremost.
“The moving will scare the cat into hiding,” he told the AP.
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