Last Updated on October 1, 2026 by admin
Lola hid the way every cat hides on moving day — except hers was a gap under a floorboard that dropped her into the wall.
She ended up upside down behind a first-floor wall in Franklin Square, Long Island, wedged so tightly she could not turn around. According to the Associated Press report carried by 1News, she stayed there for about five days.
The family had been moving out of a second-floor apartment. Boxes were everywhere, doors were open, strangers were carrying furniture. Lola did what most cats do when their territory is torn apart: she found the smallest, darkest place she could and went into it.
The search nobody could solve
Once the apartment emptied out, the family could not find her. They could not hear her either, at least not well enough to say where.
They called in John DeBacker, a professional cat rescuer with more than 15 years of experience and vice president of Long Island Cat/Kitten Solution, according to Hoodline. His first tool was a food-and-camera trap, the standard move for a hiding cat. It did not work, because Lola was not hiding in a room. She was inside the building itself.
By the time DeBacker pinned down where she was, the search had run roughly two weeks.
The decision that mattered
Getting to a cat inside a wall means cutting the wall. DeBacker and a contractor started with an electric saw.
Then he stopped and switched to a drill. His reason, as quoted by the AP: “After two weeks we did not want to lose the cat again.”
A frightened cat in a wall can bolt deeper into the cavity at the sound of a saw, and at that point nobody can reach her at all. A quieter drill cost time, and it kept Lola where she was.
Once there was an opening, an endoscopic camera went in. On the screen was a cat, head down, wedged in the space between the studs.
“Safe!”
There was no room to lift her out the normal way. DeBacker worked her free and pulled her out backward through the narrow gap, a few inches at a time.
She came out coated in dust. The word that went up in the room, per the AP story on WRAL, was “Safe!” Lola was lowered into a towel-lined crate and taken straight to an emergency vet.
What the vet found
The vet found insulation inside her body. After days with no food, Lola had eaten the material from the wall.
The bigger worry for any cat that stops eating is hepatic lipidosis, a fatty liver condition that can set in when a cat goes without food. That is why her recovery is not tied up with a bow yet. Lola is home with her family, but her appetite is still poor, and she needs ongoing veterinary care.
DeBacker called her survival “pretty miraculous.”
What this means for your next move
Lola’s story is a moving-day warning wrapped in a rescue. A few small changes before the boxes come out can keep your cat out of a wall:
- Shut your cat in one quiet room with food, water and a litter box before the movers arrive, and put a sign on the door.
- Check for floor gaps, loose boards and open vents in any room she can reach.
- Make sure her microchip details and collar tag are current before the day starts.
- Keep the carrier out and ready, so she is the first thing loaded and the last thing you do not have to look for.
And if you ever do lose a cat inside a building, resist the urge to start cutting. Call a specialist who works with cameras and traps first.
Lola went into a gap the size of a cat’s curiosity and spent five days upside down. She walked back into her family’s arms covered in dust, and the first thing she needed was a vet to help her eat.
Has your cat ever vanished on moving day? Tell us where you found them in the comments 👇