Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D–Greenpoint) has built up 30-year record helping Brooklyn’s littlest, most defenseless constituents.
So it was no surprise that as he was being sworn in for another term in Albany on Wednesday, his staff was scrambling to rescue a kitten that had trapped itself inside the wall of Lentol’s Lorimer Street office.
Lentol’s spokeswoman Amy Cleary flagged down a group of firefighters who were across the street on their lunch break, and they rescued the kitten after taking apart a wall in the office bathroom.
The next day, Cleary sent out a statement so exciting, so breathless that it walks away with our coveted “Press Release of the Week.”
Firemen Rescue Trapped Stray Kitten Trapped in Wall of
Assemblyman
Joe Lentol’s District Office Building
Yesterday, while Assemblyman Joe Lentol listened to new Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State address, his staff was having an adventure of their own back at the district office in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
It started when communications director, Amy Cleary, noticed that you could hear a cat crying from the back of the office where the first floor store abuts on a small fenced parking lot.
All four fireman trooped through the office to the back where the cats cries could still be heard but much quieter than earlier in the morning.
“I was so worried,” said Tish Cianciotta another Lentol staffer. “It was clear she was getting weak and tired, the firemen got here just in time.”
They realized she must be in the wall, and started trying to figure out where in the wall she was, they took apart part of the wall in our bathroom and then went down to the basement with a ton of tools.
“I felt so bad, they were on their lunch breaks and all of their food was back in the truck getting cold. But they were great, they just kept at it, trying to get her out,” said Cleary.
“It was the most exciting thing we’ve had happen here in a while. They even mentioned bringing in infrared equipment but I think they were kidding,” said Emily Mijatovic, Lentol’s district office liaison.
The firemen finally had success by cutting a hole in the basement wall and coaxing the kitten out with food. She was a hungry girl and very dirty from her adventures in the wall.
After posing for a pictures the firemen, who Lentol’s staff was pretty sure had now missed their entire lunch break and had to go straight back on duty, went back on their truck and headed back to the Firehouse 238 on Humboldt Street and McGuiness Boulevard.
“I want to thank the firemen from Firehouse 238 for giving up their lunch hour to help a lost kitten,” said Lentol. “As an animal lover, this is the kind of story that warms your heart and gives you hope in the New Year.”
