John DeBacker has been called a lot of things over 15 years of cat rescues, but “Catman” might be his favorite.
The nickname, emblazoned across his T-shirt, became literal last Friday when DeBacker pulled a terrified, dust-covered cat named Lola through a hole he had drilled into a Long Island wall. Lola, 5, had spent roughly five days trapped upside down inside the first-floor cavity of her family’s old home in Franklin Square, a New York City suburb.
DeBacker and his team had been trying to catch Lola for about two weeks, ever since she darted under a floorboard while her family was moving out of their second-floor apartment. He set traps baited with food and monitored night-vision cameras, watching her emerge and evade capture again and again.
Then she vanished entirely.
Lola had fallen through a gap and was wedged behind the lower wall, suspended head-down, nibbling insulation to survive. DeBacker was losing hope they would find her alive.
“After two weeks we did not want to lose the cat again,” he said.
With a contractor’s help, DeBacker switched tactics. He started with an electric saw, cutting into the wall until an endoscopic camera spotted Lola’s shape inside. When she tensed at the noise, fearing she might bolt deeper into the structure, they traded the saw for a quieter drill.
The rescue footage shows DeBacker reaching through the narrow opening, finding Lola’s hind legs, shifting his weight back and drawing her out backward in one careful motion.
“Safe!” a woman shouted off-camera as the exhausted cat was lowered into a towel-lined crate.
DeBacker called the moment the greatest feeling in the world.
“It’s pretty miraculous that the cat survived there five days with no food or water,” he said. “And when you’re upside-down, all the blood is rushing to your head.”
Lola was rushed to an emergency veterinarian, where examiners found insulation in her body, he said. She has since reunited with her family but is struggling with a poor appetite and ongoing vet visits to determine the underlying problem.
DeBacker, who keeps four cats of his own, has a warning for anyone planning a move with pets.
“Secure the cats first and not after all the moving,” he said. “The moving will scare the cat into hiding.”
The Franklin Square rescue caps years of work that DeBacker has put into tracking and retrieving lost cats across Long Island, building a reputation that now follows him on his chest.