HVAC
15 miles from downtown of Evans, CO
John Garvey says: „When you have a 5.4-lb. kitten named Benny trapped deep inside of your home's air ducts, a lot of scenarios flock through your mind. Most of those scenarios are not fun.
I have no idea how Benny pried the register away from the opening in the upstairs loft, or what he was thinking as he crawled deeper and deeper into our home's ventilation system around 6:30 the other evening. After first taking every common-sensical measure to get him out independently, I started making calls.
I called SO many people: animal control, HVAC companies, and private pest control companies. NOBODY had ever heard of this happening, and nobody was able, or willing, to help. I also learned that because of the acoustics of air ducts, it is virtually impossible to triangulate the position of a cat meowing at you from inside.
Finally, I made my way down the list on the search engine results page to Triple Point Heating & Air. A half an hour later, August, the proprietor, is at my house. For the next 2 1/2 hours, this guy troubleshoots the situation with a combination of tools and cat psychology and the same level of care he'd show if it were his own house and his own cat.
Benny had been trapped for over 12 hours by the time Triple Point arrived, and had probably traversed at least 35 percent of the air ducts in our 2-story home. There's a lot of detail I won't go into about the complications that arose because of a poorly configured HVAC system and cat psychology. But August at last caught sight of two little eyes peering up at him through a fiber optic scope, from one of the most inconvenient and difficult to access spots possible.
From our utility room, August removed the ductwork and other impediments with the minimum possible amount of damage. He contorted his body into an extremely uncomfortable-looking position and patiently coaxed Benny, who was trapped on the wrong side of a narrow damper (a series of parallel metal slats).
I didn't think the cat would fit through. I offered to get olive oil. I thought we might have to cut a gaping hold in the upstairs wall or rip out the damper to get the furry little psycho free.
But two minutes later, August had coaxed Benny far enough along that he was able to safely pull him the rest of the way out.
The cat was completely unharmed, unphased, and ungrateful after more than 14 hours in the dark, cold respiratory system of my home. Judging by his demeanor, you'd have thought he had just been sunning himself on a windowsill.
Cats are sociopaths.
August would not bill me for full amount of time he spent on this. I even argued with him a little because he underbilled me by at least an hour. I ended up paying about half of what I expected to pay, and I got my no-good kitten back.
Triple Point went above and beyond in every way, bringing a very unusual and challenging situation to a happy resolution. I am extremely grateful...“ Show more