Kittens Saved from Hurricane Lisa’s Deadly Wrath

We continue to bring you coverage of the catastrophe brought about by Hurricane Lisa and the humanitarian and relief efforts currently ongoing. Tonight we bring you a story of an animal rescue in the midst of raging winds and rains on Wednesday evening. One Belize City businessman put his life at risk in a category one hurricane to save the lives of two kittens. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.

Paul Lopez, Reporting

Andrew Craig, the owner of Smok’d on North Front Street, has two new additions to his family. Craig heard the sounds of kittens crying coming from under his patio while Hurricane Lisa was making landfall with brute force.

Andrew Craig

Andrew Craig, Owner, Smok’d

“During the storm we had everything secured, everything set, and about four o’clock we came outside to just look around the area to see what happening. We were here for about forty-five minutes, right here on the deck. That is when we here the cats crying. I said, cats are under the deck.”

These kittens were in distress. Beneath the deck was already taking water and they were trapped.

Andrew Craig

“At that time I didn’t know what to do to be honest with you. We grab a pick axe and um at first we figure we would get them from under the deck and we heard them at the center. So, I just figured I would break the board over there. As you can see, I broke the first board and at that very moment I lost hope because that beam is completely enclosed. I broke another board, and another, board and another board. Finally I think it was my daughter or her uncle he peeped through one of the holes and saw one of them swimming. My wife heard them at the end of the deck so she said break this board here. So I broke that board and they pulled out one of the cat.”

Craig was able to rescue the second kitten, after further damaging his patio. While the family is not certain how they got there, he says the young felines would not have survived the harsh weather beneath the porch.

Andrew Craig

“They were swimming. They were swimming. Their bellies were huge because they had drunk some of the water so they were swimming for a while. They wouldn’t have survived, maybe another fifteen, twenty minutes.”

Craig has already gone ahead to name one of the rescues, as he has taken the decision to keep them under his care.

Andrew Craig

“For months now I have been saying I want cats and my wife keep on saying nuh right now right. I have one name for one of them, I’m not sure if it’s a girl or a boy, but I want to him or her hunter. We had a cat this exact color when I was a kid and he was hunter so it reminds me of him.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez