The three buff firemen dropped to their knees to comfort a victim in a tight spot.
The victim: a teensy black and white kitten named Suki.
The tight spot: a home entertainment center in which the meowing kitty’s head was stuck.
The rescue this week in Camarillo by Ventura County firefighters was filmed by the feline’s owner, Erin Garcia. And like so many irresistibly cute animal moments, it was posted to social media, where it promptly racked up millions of views and praise for the rescuers.
“In this era when we have such devastating news that we see, sometimes it’s nice to have a ray of sunshine,” said Andrew Dowd, a spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department, who said the viral video, which is just a few seconds long, brought a lot of joy to the department as well.
“Yes, we are a fire agency, but at the end of the day, we are a service industry,” he said. “When someone in our community needs help, we help them.”
The rescue took place Sunday morning, with Engine 50 responding to a call of an animal in distress, Dowd said.
Suki, who had been with her new family only a few weeks, had crawled into an opening in an entertainment center cabinet and could not get out. Firefighters removed audio and visual equipment, lowered the cabinet and “very carefully and gently” broke away a piece to free the kitten, he said.
As they worked, the kitten, caught by her neck, meowed and tried to use her back paws to push the cabinet away.
“Fortunately, Suki was OK” and had no injuries, Dowd said.
Suki’s owner could not be reached for comment. Nor could Suki, who utters only cute cat meows.
Dowd, who spent two decades as a firefighter before becoming a public information officer, said he got called to help animals “many, many times.” He helped save a cat that got stuck inside the wall of a garage, requiring firefighters to cut holes in the wall to reach in and grab it.
And he never will forget getting a call from a woman whose dog had just died. She was home alone and needed help lifting her beloved pet’s body into her car so she could take it to be cremated.
“She called us, bawling, and we were loading the dog, comforting her,” Dowd said. “In the span of 20 years of a career, those are the kinds of calls you remember that make a difference.”
After the fire department shared a video of Suki’s rescue on its Facebook page, commenters shared their own stories of their furry friends being rescued.
“Ventura fire also rescued my cat out of a storm drain a couple years ago. They opened up the manhole, got all the way in, gained her trust with treats and grabbed her for me!” one woman wrote.
Another woman posted a photo of her horse and wrote: “My four-legged friend got in trouble and they came to his rescue with an impressive level of ingenuity and strength, and I’m so grateful.”
And one commenter, referencing the classic hot firemen calendars used as fundraisers, wrote: “Someone should make a calendar of handsome men rescuing cats and dogs!”
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