Long Island Cat Lola Rescued After 5 Days Trapped Behind an Apartment Wall
A Long Island cat named Lola is back with her family after a rescue that sounds like every move-day cat parent’s fear come to life. She slipped beneath a floorboard while her owners were preparing to leave their apartment, wound up trapped behind a wall for five days, and was finally pulled to safety on video.
A disappearing act no one wanted
Lola’s ordeal began on Sept. 4, when her family was getting ready to move out of their second-floor apartment in Long Island, New York. The activity appears to have frightened her, and she ducked under a floorboard.
Her owners called in John DeBacker for help. He has been rescuing cats for more than 15 years, and he started with the kind of patient setup many cat people will recognize: food, cameras, and a trap. Lola did come out at night, but she avoided being caught.
Then she stopped appearing at all. DeBacker realized she had fallen and was stuck behind a wall on the building’s main level. He later said they discovered her inside the wall five days after they had lost contact.
That is the part that makes Lola’s story especially alarming. According to DeBacker, she was trapped behind the wall for five days. For a cat that had already vanished into the structure of an apartment, that meant a rescue would depend on finding exactly where she was and getting to her without making things worse.
How Lola was finally pulled free
DeBacker said Lola was stuck upside down behind the wall. During that time, she was eating insulation and becoming weaker.
Her rescue came on Sept. 18, two weeks after she first slipped under the floorboard. Working with a contractor, DeBacker had a hole cut into the wall with an electric drill. When Lola seemed nervous, they switched to a quieter drill.
The video from the rescue shows DeBacker wearing a shirt marked “Catman” as he reaches through the opening and gets hold of Lola by her hind legs. He then shifts upright and slowly draws her out, placing her into a crate.
The moment was tense enough that the reaction in the room said everything. After Lola was safely out, a woman can be heard calling out, “Safe!” Relief from others nearby is audible in the footage as well.
DeBacker later said it was remarkable that Lola survived those five days without food or water. He also noted that being upside down meant blood was rushing to her head, which added to the seriousness of the situation.
Back with her family, and a reminder for moving day
Lola has since been reunited with her owners and taken to a veterinarian. DeBacker said insulation had to be removed from her stomach, and she has had follow-up visits because of a poor appetite.
For everyone involved, simply seeing her alive was the biggest outcome. DeBacker said it was the greatest feeling in the world to find her that way, and that her owners were relieved too.
He brings a little extra cat-person credibility to the warning he shared afterward. DeBacker has four cats himself, and he urged anyone getting ready to move to secure their cats before tackling the rest of the chaos. His message was straightforward: moving can scare cats into hiding.
Lola’s story is a pretty vivid example of how fast that can happen. One frightened cat, one hidden opening, and a family suddenly had a rescue operation on their hands. The good news is that Lola made it out, got veterinary care, and is back where cat people always hope these stories end: home with her people.
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