A kitten found a name in an Oneonta storm drain.
On Tuesday, July 7, married couple Ed Clancy and Holly Clancy were each going about their mornings near Oneida Street when Ed Clancy watched a truck pass and something moving in the road — a kitten falling into a sewer grate.
“My husband met up with me,” Holly Clancy said Thursday. The two assessed the situation and went seeking help; Ed Clancy to state police and Holly Clancy to the Super Heroes Humane Society and her old employer, the state Department of Transportation. She said she just caught people at both facilities.
“We were supposed to be going out to clean more culverts,” Nayati Gilson, a highway maintenance worker, said Thursday. “My supervisor left in a vehicle with an engineer, so I knew something was happening.”
Soon after, Gilson said, he received a call to get in a truck and come down to Oneida Street. There, several people already were looking into the sewer grate where the about 8-weeks-old orange cat had fallen.
“I went in, had a flashlight, tried to coax the kitten” out of a pipe he said, adding that he tried to shake some treats the Super Heroes team brought. It didn’t work.
He then tried to use a net SHHS brought. But “even with most of my body in the pipe and reaching out the net,” Gilson still could not reach the kitten.
“The final idea, which I wasn’t sure would work, was we have a tank truck with water for cleaning the culverts,” Gilson said. With another DOT worker at the next sewer grate, the goal was to use the water to encourage the kitten to leave the pipe.
“Amazingly, the cat came towards the water, the cat came towards me, even though I was spraying the water,” he said. He grabbed the kitten with the net and gave him to Super Heroes staff.
“He was a little wet, a little dirty,” and had some cuts, Super Heroes office manager Aimee LaFrance said. He was also “a little scared.”
Staff decided to name the kitten Nayati, after Gilson.
“I guess that’s really up to them,” Gilson said. “I’ve never really sought, like, the fame or anything.” He said his family has some Native American heritage, and the name means “fighter” or “somebody with a strong spirit, strong personality.”
At about 8 weeks old, LaFrance said, Nayati will be neutered and kept for about another month before becoming available for adoption.
“All these coincidences just came together for the guy,” Holly Clancy said.