Alberta Oilfield Worker saves the lives of three kittens

Kendall Diwisch an oil patch worker saved three kittens in the middle of freezing conditions around Tomahawk Alberta while checking on drilling sites. He gave an interview to The National Telegraph describing what he saw and what he did that day. 

Kendall described the situation, saying that:

“I was on shift completing my daily checks on my gas wells on my run. West of one of my sites there is a cut across the road that connects one dead-end range road to another township road. When I came around the corner I saw what looked to be a black garbage bag but as I drove closer I could see a couple of sets of ears. At first, I thought they were lynx kittens as I wasn’t anywhere near any residents, and it was a few miles to the nearest ones. I pulled up kind of close to them and see they didn’t scatter and that they were household kittens.”

Kendall immediately started trying to help the young cats, before realizing how dire the situation was.

“When I got up to them I saw all three were huddled together quite tightly. I actually tried picking up the first one and see his rear end and paws were frozen into the ice. That’s when I decided to go back and grab my phone to record the event. I wanted to be able to show my wife and kids what I experienced. I also thought that people wouldn’t believe me when I told them.” 

It’s good that Kendall did record it so that everyone could observe what had taken place, which all sounds quite strange without the ability to see what had happened.

Kendall explained to us how he was able to get the Kittens unstuck from the ice using careful techniques, including the use of the Folgers coffee his wife had brewed him that morning.

“I started filming while I worked to get them unstuck. I was able to get the first one out easy. I think he was wiggling around a bit and was almost out, and I just helped him with his last leg. The other two had their tails frozen in. I tried working out their tails, but they had iced over the top of them, so I thought that I could use it in my truck to help thaw them without harming them.”

“I ended up grabbing my coffee cup as I knew it wouldn’t be too hot. I used some of the coffee to melt down the ice around their tails. This got rid of the ice that was over the top of the tails. I worked them out after and freed them both up.”

Of course, getting the kittens free was only the first step to ensuring their safety.

“The first kitten I freed up crawled under and up into my truck on the transmission, likely because it was warm, that’s why I walked to the back of the truck in the video as I heard him meowing under there. I put the other two on my passenger floor mat while I crawled under my truck to find the first one. I was able to grab him and also put him in my truck. I then called my wife and told asked her to set up the kennel we had in our garage and that I was going to come home with some kittens quickly.”

Everything smoothed out after that, and all that was left to do was look after the kittens until someone else could take them.

“I first brought them into the house and showed them to my daughters with the video on how I found them, and then put them in the garage. (I’m allergic so they couldn’t stay in the house). I ended up going back to work for the rest of the day.”

Kendall went onto explained how he then chose to adopt out the three kittens in his hometown area of Drayton Valley, which was made a bit easier with the story attached to the kittens.

“When I came home, I decided to put together a post that I hoped would reach out to our local town in finding them a home. I know social media sites have restricted the resale and adoptions of pets/ animals, and I also know that with cats, it can sometimes be harder to find them a home as there is an abundance around here. I figured that if I was able to show people the condition that I found them in, that it would maybe have people show more remorse, and maybe they would put more effort into finding them a home.”

“It ended up getting shared around Drayton valley, and I had a local family reach out and said they would adopt all three. There were quite a few other people that said they would take one, but I kinda wanted them to all go to the same place so they could stay together.”

Kendall and the new owner had then made sure to have the three kittens go for a medical check-up at the local animal shelter, Cause for Critters, where it was found only one of the cats had some minor frostbite on its tail, and the other two were perfectly okay.

Kendall told us that as odd as the whole story seems, for him seeing abandoned animals around job sites is not that uncommon. He said:

“Unfortunately, this isn’t the first experience I have had finding cats/kittens out in the middle of nowhere. Our family garage/ mouser cat we adopted last fall when I found it on another one of my sites. I do, in my personal opinion, believe that they were dumped as it was simply too far from any residence to be just out wandering.”

The fact that abandonment like this isn’t that uncommon also points to how important it was that Kendall was there that day to save the kittens. It is good to know someone who cares so much for the well-being of animals is there to lend a hand.