To celebrate National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day, I offer these stories about animals pulled out of sewer inlets.
For more information on animal adoption, type “animal shelter” into your favorite search engine, or, if you’re local to Philadelphia, check out ACCT Philly, the Montgomery County SPCA, or the Morris Animal Refuge, just for starters.
A crowd gathered round a Holmesburg sewer inlet last night to witness an hour-long demonstration of what could be described only as pure doggedness. It began when Mrs. Muriel Cotter, of 3144 Weston Street, heard a whine as she passed the intersection of Weston and Albion sts. Seeking its source, she noticed a pair of brown paws on the edge of the curb-line inlet. As Mrs. Cotter hurried to help the pup out of its odd predicament, the paws disappeared. A splash followed. Several men lifted the lid of the inlet and shouted encouragement to the animal, which could be seen dog-paddling in some five feet of water. Someone put in a call for the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The crowd had grown to nearly 100 persons by the time the SPCA vehicle arrived. The driver, Arthur Fuccio, explained he was in South Philadelphia when he received the call. Fuccio obtained a pole with a piece rope looped at one end. He lowered the pole into the sewer, slipped the line over the dog’s head and lifted the nearly exhausted mongrel to safety. The unlicensed animal was taken to SPCA headquarters. 350 E. Erie Avenue.
Philadelphia Inquirer, November 7, 1954, page 41 (Source: newspapers.com)
The police are called upon to do all sorts of things in the line of their duty to protect and save lives, stop quarrels, etc. Yesterday morning about a 3 o’clock under a moonless sky a policeman was found on his knees at Tenth Street and Marble Alley, while three more policemen stood around watching with the closest attention what he was doing. Early morning pedestrians rushing to the scene found him on his knees for a very extraordinary purpose. He was bending over the sewer inlet from which piteous wailings of some suffering child of accident or foul wrong ascended to his harrowed ears. With heroic strength the policeman had thrown off the heavy iron covering and now was fishing down in the foul bottom of the sewer trap from which the heartrending wailings rose.
“Saved! Bravo!” was the shout that went up with great laughter as the kneeling officer caught, raised and held up in the dim light—a cat. It was not an infant, not even an infant cat, but an adult prowler that had gone forth from his cool hole to conquer and had been sadly knocked out. There had been a terrible quarrel on that corner. There he and his rival met. The four policemen had rushed up just too late to avert the quarrel, as usual. The two grappled with teeth and claws and rolled over and over in a small tornado-like combat. The whirl ended in the gutter, where the other fellow landed a right-hander behind the ear and ended the round by knocking his victim down into the sewer.
The rescued cat was allowed to go upon his own recognizances, and the other will be arrested as soon as possible.
Philadelphia Inquirer, August 3, 1891 (Source: newspapers.com)