Tyson Hood was browsing Facebook one evening when he came across a post about a tiny kitten who had fallen into a storm drain. The kitten had been cries for assistance for four days since he was stuck and unable to be rescued. Hood instantly wrote a message to the individual who posted to see if he could assist because he loves animals a lot and is the lieutenant of community risk reduction at his local fire department.
Hood told , “I’m kind of a sucker for animals in need and wrote her a private message saying that I worked for the local fire department in a position where I may be able to help.The next day I heard a message notification ping, and we went to work.”
Hood didn’t have a ton of experience with cats and called his girlfriend for advice. She warned him that the kitten would likely be afraid of him, and making the rescue a little more difficult, and she was right. The little guy was definitely scared and confused, and it took about an hour and a half to finally free him from the storm drain.
“After meeting with Stephanie, the Good Samaritan who first recognized there was a kitten who needed help, she showed me the storm drain and explained that she’s been feeding [him] regularly, so [he’s] at least not starving,” Hood said. “After getting the grate out of the way, Stephanie brought some tuna and we placed it across from the tunnel so he had to completely exit the tunnel to eat.
He caught on pretty quick that it was a ‘trap’ and refused to leave the tunnel if he could see me at all, but he trusted Stephanie enough … [When] Stephanie could see he had fully exited the tunnel to eat the tuna, [she] gave me a signal — essentially all I did was cover the tunnel with the net before he could turn around and run in. It was pretty close, but instead, he just ended up running fully into the net and I lifted him out.”
The kitten was first a little scared, but as soon as he understood he was free and everyone around him was secure, he started to calm down. It didn’t take him long to fall in love with his savior completely.
As soon as he was safe and out of the sewer, Hood said, “he was an amazing lover – constant cuddling.” The hardest I’ve ever seen a cat nuzzle-purr, she immediately climbed up onto my shoulders. Which was flattering, but he smelled awful, as you might expect. Before we ended up on the phone when I originally phoned Cheryl for guidance, she advised me, “This is how you acquire a cat – you make sure you take the cat home.”
Hood completely supported Stephanie’s wishes to adopt the kitty when he was set free. He assured her that he would be pleased to adopt the little child if circumstances changed. A few days later, he received the call. The arrangement wasn’t going to work out for no fault of Stephanie or the kitten, and Hood was now legally recognized as the child’s father.
Hood made the decision to give the cat the name Walnut because he was discovered on Walnut Street. His new father is overjoyed with how everything turned out and is now well established in his new house.
“I fully believe he must have had some sort of emotional imprint of good times cuddling on my shoulders because that’s the only place he wants to be if I’m sitting still,” Hood said. “He purrs like a chainsaw and headbutts like a rhinoceros and for some reason insists on sleeping splayed across my neck.
Anytime his food dish is full, he leads me over to it and wants me to stand guard, which may be my lifelong penance for snagging him with a giant pool net while he was eating in his sewer home. But I feel like we understand each other, and we both had a pretty darn good day when our paths crossed.”
Hood was intended to be his father, and Walnut knew as soon as he saved him that this meant the two would always be great friends.
