BELLE FOURCHE—A faint meow coming from beneath the hood of a vehicle set the stage for an unusual rescue in downtown Belle Fourche on May 29. Thanks to the quick response of local police officers, a trapped kitten was safely brought to freedom.
Brandy Hoopingarner and Linda Dreiske spent a few hours in downtown Belle Fourche enjoying the Wine Up on State Street event. When it came time to leave, they heard something strange coming from the car. “We heard him crying, so we called the cops,” explained Hoopingarner.
Officers Duprel and Bell answered the call. They pulled up in the alley on State Street and heard the faint cat meowing coming from inside the car motor. Duprel took off his vest and got to work! He crawled up on top of the motor area of the red SUV and then he had to crawl under the vehicle too. After a few moments, he came up with a tiny gray baby kitty. The small crowd that gathered cheered!
“They called and said they had a cat stuck in their car—in the motor compartment of their car,” explained Duprel. “I showed up, I heard them yelling. I climbed on top of the motor, reached in, got a hold of it once and it pulled away from me, and then it crawled into a different area and so I crawled under the car and grabbed its back legs, wormed him out—got him out!”
Dreiske took the kitty from Duprel and fell in love immediately. “Oh, she’s gonna be beautiful,” she said. She asked officers if she could take the kitty home with her and they responded yes!
“I’m gonna name her Buzz Kill,” joked Dreiske. They had just left the Wine Up event after enjoying all of the different wine and snacks and were in a joyous mood, and then the kitty drama changed that!
While this isn’t the typical call the police receive, the two officers that showed up did a great job of handling the situation. “A cat stuck in a motor is pretty unusual—we do handle a lot of animal-related calls, like dogs-at-large and cats-at-large calls—this one’s a new one,” shared Duprel.
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