If black cats are bad luck, then this kitten has already used all his bad luck up. However, it was good luck that a geologist working nearby heard him mew. The kitten had fallen 25 feet down a hole in Venice, California. No one knew how long he'd been down there.
The Los Angeles area’s Specialized Mobile Animal Rescue Team (SMART) was called in to rescue the kitten. SMART rescuers Ernesto Poblano and Felix Lopez used an infrared camera attached to the end of a long pole to investigate the pipe and find the kitten. Once it was spotted, and the rescuers assessed the animal’s physical surroundings, they made a plan to safely remove the kitten from the pipe.
They sent down another pole with a camera and a loop attached to grab the kitten. Watch a video of the rescue at National Geographic News.