Late-night rescue saves one cat from the subway tracks. Another still remains.
One kitty is safe. But another is still down there.
A pretty black-and-white, short-haired tabby with glowing green saucers for eyes was rescued from SEPTA’s subway tracks early this week.
In the wee hours of Monday morning — SEPTA cut power to the Broad Street subway line from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. to save the kitty — Subrina wandered into the cage provided by nonprofit Stray Cat Relief. The bait was wet cat food. The door slammed quickly behind her when she went for the tasty morsels. Subrina (named by Stray Cat Relief, the rescue agency that helped orchestrate the retrieval) was stunned but safe.
Their work is not done.
Another kitty — Subastian — is still down there. And feline enthusiasts are freaked out.
Between fast-moving trains and electric third rails, subway tracks are not a safe place for a kitty. On Thursday morning the city shut down power on the Broad Street line from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. and used tuna instead of just plain old cat food. Irresistible, right? Wrong. Subastian is a clever kitty and sat outside of the trap. It’s unclear when the next rescue attempt will happen. But, said Amy Mancuso, foster adoptions coordinator at Stray Cat Relief Fund, “we are going to try a bigger trap and this time set two.”
Straphangers and SEPTA workers have been worried about the kitty cats stuck in the subway for months. There were reports that it was a family of cats, Mancuso said. But upon investigation, it’s just two kitties. In December Stray Cat Relief rescued another male cat, Phil, who looks just like Subrina and Subastian at 15th and Market Street, meters away from the City Hall subway station.
Mancuso thinks all three of the cats were abandoned because Subrina, although afraid, has warmed up to her rescuers. Feral cats remain afraid for much longer, she said.
Subrina is thin. Patches of her hair are missing. And she’s sustained puncture wounds. A local vet spayed and gave her rabies shots. But Subrina has tested positive for feline leukemia, a blood disease that shortens life spans and easily passes to other cats. She will have to be fostered by a family that doesn’t have cats, Mancuso said. If Subastian tests positive feline leukemia, the two cats can be fostered together, Mancuso said. If not, they will have to be separated.
“There are a lot of cats who need help in Philly and not enough families to foster them,” Mancuso said.
Interested in fostering Subrina and Subastion? Send an email to Stray Cat Relief, purr@straycatrelieffund.org