Tiny Kitten Has Whole Supermarket Up a Tree

Life hasn’t been the same at a La Mirada supermarket since a tiny gray kitten slipped into the store four days ago and disappeared under the refrigerated food cases.

Assistant manager Bob Liberty, for instance, was lying on the floor Wednesday morning, holding a flashlight and peering through a small hole into the maze of pipes, condensers and wires where the kitten has been hiding since Sunday.

“C’mon kitty, please come out. I’ve got work to do today,” he pleaded.

Nearby, deli clerk John Whalen was explaining to shoppers the high-pitched cries filtering up through the jars of sauerkraut and rolls of baloney.

“This is crazy,” Whalen said as he straightened packages of hot dogs. “People hear the kitty and plead with me to do something. I can’t. I’m helpless.”

Most store employees shared that feeling Wednesday as Day 4 of what one checker dubbed “The Great Grocery Cat Caper” wore on.

Since Sunday night, the kitten has roamed the narrow crawl space that runs the 150-foot length of the display cases on the back wall of the Von’s Supermarket at Valley View Avenue and Imperial Highway.

Store officials have tried everything from fresh mackerel to imported ham to sweet talk to coax the frightened cat from the darkened cooling duct beneath the shelves. At one point, they even removed the lower front panels on the display cases and set out opened cans of fresh tuna, hoping to lure the kitten out through the one of the small circular air holes along the bottom of the cases.

But the kitten, whom employees have named “Ellie in the Deli,” has yet to take the bait. So the cat watch continued into the night Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, after huddling with the Southern California Humane Society and other animal protection agencies, Von’s officials decided that the best approach to rescuing the kitten was a live-animal trap, which they set near a small opening behind the dairy case where employees believe the kitten squeezed into the cooling ducts. The trap was baited with fresh mackerel.

“Hunger will eventually drive the cat out. I’m positive,” said Terri Brown, a La Mirada resident who has worked for animal groups for years and went to the market Wednesday after a friend told her about the stranded kitten.

“That kitten can go two or three more days without food. But it won’t take that long. That mackerel will do the trick. You watch.”

Whalen isn’t so sure.

“That kitten is like a cat up in a tall tree,” he said. “You know it can get down, but it’s just too frightened. It needs a helping hand.”

The space under the cases is only 8 to 12 inches high and virtually inaccessible unless the cases are moved. But Von’s officials say that even if the cases are dismantled, there is no guarantee that they can reach the kitten.

Although the display cases are cold, store manager Frank Quiros said sections of the crawl space underneath are heated to keep the pipes from freezing. There is little or no food and the only water is condensation on the pipes, he said.

Quiros admitted that somebody may have been catnapping Sunday afternoon when the kitten apparently darted through the front door on the heels of a customer.

“I guess they didn’t go after it right away, and it disappeared in the rear of the store,” said Quiros, who was off Sunday and did not learn of the cornered kitten until Monday, when an employee called him.

“First thing Monday, I get this phone call about a wailing cat in my store,” he said. “My first thought was, ‘Why me? why me?’ ”

At one point Tuesday, when the supermarket chain’s refrigeration specialists arrived and removed the front panels on the display cases, about a dozen employees and customers were on the floor, trying to find the kitten.

“The moment I walked into the store, I heard that cat crying--all the way up front. I went straight to the deli case, got down on my knees and started giving it my best, ‘kitty, kitty,’ ” said Fred Gruber, a La Mirada shopper, who was in the store Tuesday morning.

“Those cat cries just kind of tore me up.”