Saturday,August 11, 2007.
Around 9:30pm.
The day after we rescued BamBam from under Jake's car.
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Operator: "911, what's your emergency?"
Me: "Uh, my kitten fell into a ditch and she can't climb back out. She's trying to but she just falls back into the water every time."
Operator: "How deep is the water, Ma'am?"
Me: "Water? Uhm, maybe just around an inch or two. It didn't rain today. But the ditch is around 14 or 15 feet deep with concrete walls that go straight down on either side."
Operator: "Okay. What is your exact location?"
Me: "1234 Forest Hills, Banawa."
Operator: ("All units, we have a 321* over at 1234 Forest Hills, Banawa. Victim may have sustained injuries due to the fall, possible hypothermia...") "A rescue unit is on the way, Ma'am. How long has your kitten been down there?"
Me: "I don't know... she was already in there when we arrived. She's huddled in a corner now meowing... probably cold and exhausted. I just adopted her a couple of days ago and she's sick and thin and we're still trying to nurse her back to health." ("It's okay, BamBam. Help is on the way. You'll be out of there soon. Just hang on.")
Operator: "Okay, Ma'am. Just keep talking to her and keep her calm. The rescue team should be there soon."
(SIRENS BLARING IN THE DISTANCE GETTING CLOSER AND CLOSER)
Me: "I hear them." ("You hear that, Bam? Help is almost here. You'll be okay.") "Thank you."
click
END OF CALL
*Writer's Note: 321 = rescue code for "a kitten has fallen into a 15-foot ditch with 1-2 inches of water in it and can't climb back out"
Okay, so we don't have 911 here in the Philippines. :-p And the "rescue team" was already standing there - Me and Princeton. Problem was we had no idea how we were going to do it without any equipment.
The ditch was too steep to climb down by hand, and if we did manage it we'd never be able to climb back out. It was also dark and full of rats and snakes and other unknown creatures of the night. One of our options was to wait until morning when we could call the gardener to come and get BamBam out. At least by then, the ditch would be bathed in sunlight and the beasts of darkness would be in hiding. But with her eye infection and in her undernourished state, I severely doubted she'd make it through the night in there.
We needed to find a way to do it ourselves right now.
Then I saw the old wooden ladder propped up on its side by the wall outside my room. It had been there for some time now, and I remembered that Scraggy, my previous cat, had loved playing on it, climbing up and down its steps. Ding ding ding! A plan began to take shape in my mind.
Princeton very reluctantly agreed to my plan against his better judgment. He was convinced we'd lose control of the ladder, which weighed like Megatron, and it'd fall into the abyss and rot there for all eternity. (Well, he didn't say it in those words exactly, I took the liberty of making it sound more poetic.) So we dragged the creaky artifact out of its resting place and slowly lowered it into the ditch. What followed were a few panicky moments where I began to doubt my plan and wonder if Princeton was right.
Because it would've been easier to lower Megatron into the ditch, at least he could power up and hover to lighten our load. But this old wooden relic seemed to be getting heavier and heavier, and with every inch I felt like it was trying to drag us down with it into the pitchblack mini-Amazon below us. Then all of a sudden it stopped.
By this time, BamBam had stopped meowing. She had worn herself out trying to climb up the high wall. "Bam, climb the ladder, it's just like a tree!" She didn't even look up. She just sat there hunched up with her eyes closed. "BamBam... we're up here! Look, you can use this ladder to climb up to us!" "Meow! Meow! Meow!" But she made no move.
Poof! There went my plan. I was so sure BamBam would climb up the ladder. She had tried to climb the slippery wall for heaven's sake! But she seemed oblivious to the fact that we had just provided her with a "stairway to heaven". I now had no idea what to do.
The next couple of minutes gripped me with fear and filled me with hope at the same time.
In spite of the dangers, Princeton was slowly lowering himself into the dark abyss where he had envisioned the ladder to rot for all eternity. Scary images of the old wooden ladder breaking, a giant rabid rat, and a snake winding its coils around him (although I knew there weren't any snakes that big in there) flashed through my mind followed a split-second later by a soothing realization that BamBam was going to be okay. Fear and hope, hope and fear. (Not a good combination, really. Makes you want to shit in your pants, pardon my language.)
And then I had a shivering kitten in my arms to take care of.
