Brianna, the brave kitten, used up one of her nine lives after slipping disastrously down a hole, and was plucked to freedom thanks to the heroic efforts of the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) and the General Directorate of Civil Defence.
Rescuers spent two days to prevent a catastrophe and reach the plucky pussycat trapped in a pipe containing cables, located under the electricity box, in a courtyard of an Al Salihiya property.
“The stray mother cat and kitten were meowing for two to three days, but it was only until the third day that I had realised the little kitten was stuck,” explained Shayma Kazerooni.
“She was very small and fragile, only two weeks old, so we could not lure her out and she could not climb the pipe.”
Ms Kazerooni
Ms Kazerooni alerted the EWA on Tuesday at 4pm and an emergency team of eight, including a contractor, was immediately assembled and sent to the passageway location, with the head of the Capital Governorate Emergency Centre, Omar Fawzi, taking the lead.
Even the chief executive officer, Shaikh Nawaf bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, followed up with the team throughout the day to find out how the rescue operation was going and the General Directorate of Civil Defence was also called to assist.
“I was so surprised when they came,” said Ms Kazerooni, a devoted animal lover and member of Bahrain Strays animal welfare group. “I thought I would be laughed at, but they were very ready to help.
“I guess the mother cat wanted somewhere quiet to put her four kittens. She was in the electricity box with her three kittens and one of them fell down into the pipe.”
At first a bid to pull up Brianna using a rope with a steel lasso loop tied at the end was attempted but they failed to slip the contraption over her little body.
The team started excavating the area and drilling down to open the pipe from underneath but thought the noise and vibration would cause more harm than good. Cutting through the cable, or switching electricity supplies, would have meant blacking out the whole area.
Workers traced the root of the cable pipe, which curved underground and led to an outside wall at the front of the house. They first dug 1.5 metres down and even when they reached 2.5m they still could not locate the pipe.
Eventually the meowing stopped, and an hour later they assumed the kitten had probably passed away. The rescue operation was abandoned.
However, to Ms Kazerooni’s surprise, brave Brianna started meowing once more at 7.30am yesterday and the EWA team was called into action again.
Excavation work commenced near the cable pipe and after a further five hours of digging, they finally managed to break open the pipe from below and pull the plucky pussy free.
“We occasionally receive calls to rescue animals,” said Mr Fawzi. “Fortunately on this occasion we managed to have a positive result! At the end of the day, it is a life, and all life is sacred.
“Everyone is happy – the EWA team, the contractor, our CEO Shaikh Nawaf, as well as the owners of the house who called us. We are all going to have a happy weekend ahead!”
Ms Kazerooni believes the action taken to save the stray kitten was a shining example of everything that is good about the kingdom.
“The EWA team were so kind and helpful,” she said. “I felt deeply humbled and touched by their efforts. They were there for eight hours straight on August 3 and five hours yesterday, trying different avenues, not giving up hope,” said Shayma.
“They were quiet upset when they thought the kitten had passed away, very happy to hear she was still meowing and alive … and even more elated when she was finally plucked out of the pipe!
“The Bahrain government should be commended for this. We have quite a bad reputation in Bahrain for not caring about animals, but this shows that there many here who love them, and they’re ready to help.”
The myth that cats have multiple lives exists across the world. No one exactly knows where the expression came from, but it has been around for centuries, even William Shakespeare used the expression in Romeo and Juliet: “Tybalt: What wouldst thou have with me?
Mercutio: Good king of cats, nothing but one of your nine lives.”
There’s also an old English proverb that states: ‘A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays, and for the last three he stays’.
Brianna is an ancient Celtic name meaning ‘strength and survivor’ and she is living up to it. Ms Kazerooni’s brother, Shaheen, took her to the vet and after some antibiotics and vitamins she was deemed healthy despite her ordeal and will soon be ready for a forever home.
Any reader willing to adopt her should call 39922777.
amal@gdn.com.bh
&uuid=(email))