A crew saved a tiny black kitten on the Hood Canal Bridge after a driver heard its cries for help.
According to the Washington State Department of Transportation Blog, on Sunday, a driver who was stopped on the bridge while it was open for a boat crossing heard sounds of an animal crying. She then saw the kitten barely holding on to an air vent about 25 feet below the bridge deck.
No one knows how the kitten ended up in the spot or how long it was there.
A 911 call was then routed to Hood Canal Bridge crews.
Hood Canal Bridge supervisor Paul Gahr said initially, he thought the cries were the sounds of a bird often found around the bridge, and he didn’t find anything during his original search.
When something made him decide to take a second look, he saw the black kitten. It was difficult to see against the soot-blackened building and black vents.
The WSDOT Blog said the scared kitten then jumped, falling about 20 feet to an area that only crew members could access.
“I thought the worst, but the kitten didn’t even have a scratch,” Gahr said. When bridge crew member Virginia Smith heard about the kitten, she brought a cat carrier from home, which helped comfort and keep the cat safe. After the kitten was rescued, an exam by a nearby Port Ludlow veterinarian showed the cat was unhurt despite falling 25 feet to the vent, and later, another 20 feet.
Gahr called the driver who first saw the kitten to give her an update.
“The driver who spotted the kitten was thrilled it was OK, and then agreed to give the 8-week-old kitten a permanent home,” Gahr said.
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