A Morris Park kitten is safe and dry after an adventure that brought him underground and into the sewer.
Motz, a kitten belonging to Edita Pjetrovic, somehow ended up down in the sewer on Wednesday, July 21. Pjetrovic, who lives on Victor Street in Morris Park, said that over the previous weekend, she had a barbecue in her backyard and accidentally left the door open. She looked for him for three days, calling everyone, but could not find him anywhere in the area.
Then, Pjetrovic went away for a day. When she returned, a friend told her that a kitten was stuck in a nearby sewer, and that police had been having trouble getting it out. “I went over and heard it crying, and looked down, and it was my kitten,” Pjetrovic said. “My friend said, ‘Oh my God, it fell in the water!’”
She called a number of authorities but said that unfortunately, police and others on the scene made many sarcastic comments, joking that her kitten would surely die, and that they should get some scuba gear to go swimming with it. “No one was very nice, or helpful, until the DEP came,” she said.
According to Mercedes Padilla, with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, the DEP received a call and responded by sending a special sewer crew to the corner of White Plains Road and Morris Park Avenue.
Sam Zarcone, 54, who has been with the DEP for 26 years, hopped down into the sewer’s catch basin aided by two co-workers. But before they could bring Motz to safety, TV camera equipment, with a light attached, was lowered down to help locate the animal in the dark, grimy corners of the sewer.
Once the cameras found the kitten, Zarcone grabbed Motz and brought him above ground and into Pjetrovic’s open arms.
Pjetrovic said, “I just wrapped him all up in a blanket,” she recalled. “He’s afraid of water now. He bites and scratches me if I try to give him a bath. But I’m just so happy to have him back.”
