A Columbia family was reunited with their cat, who they believed ran away after their townhouse was destroyed in a Feb. 8 fire.
The contractors, repairing the house on Winter Rose Path, were removing drywall Tuesday, when they found 3-year-old Harley lodged in the kitchen wall.
“We saw a set of eyes pop out, and we jumped back,” said Rick Rehmert, who repairs houses for Pro-Restoration Inc., a Glen Burnie company.
Rehmert pulled out another piece of drywall and saw the cat wedged between atwo-by-four and an air vent.
When they pried him out, the cat was disoriented. He took a few steps. He fell. Then he jumped two feet in the air and banged his head into the wall.
“He started going crazy. We said, ?We?ve got to put him somewhere before he hurts himself,?” Rehmert said.
The contractors quickly put a blanket into a milk crate and laid Harley inside, where he calmed down.
“He didn?t say one word,” Rehmert said.
Harley recognized his family when Hoffman and her daughter arrived 10 minutes later.
“When they showed up, Harley?s head just stuck up. He started meowing,” Rehmert said.
The Hoffmans rushed the cat, which weighed only 6 pounds, to the veterinarian, where he was held for three days.
Now Harley is safe at his new home on Tamar Drive.
“If you pet him, you feel every bone. You can feel every notch in his spine,” Hoffman said.
The cat may have fallen into the wall while crawling around in the ceiling, and eaten rodents to stay alive.
Harley?s current fare isn?t much better. He?s on a liquid diet fed through a tube.
Hoffman said her family is anxious to return to their happy life with Harley and their other two cats.
“He had a good situation with us,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
