Deerfield firefighter rescues kitten, now part of his family

When the dispatch came to the Deerfield Bannockburn Fire Department at 500 Waukegan Road, it reached the right person.

Joe Miller, an 11-year Fire Protection District firefighter and paramedic, was among those who responded Aug. 12 when a worker at a house under construction in Deerfield reported a kitten stuck in a window well drain pipe.

In addition to 11 egg-producing chickens at their Ingleside home, Joe and Kim Miller and their three children care for Charlie the German shepherd and a Flemish Giant rabbit named Georgie.

"We just love animals," Joe Miller said.

They've had four other dogs over the past 15 years, and recently had to have a pet cat euthanized due to poor health at the end of a long life.

The Millers have adopted all of their pets from shelters. All except for Charlie have been senior animals.

"We like to give them love in the last part of their life," Miller said.

But here at this construction site, wedged so snugly into a 4-inch pipe only its head and a paw were visible, was a kitten.

Miller got down in there and finessed the escape, using a rope and gentle tugging.

"He was filthy, wet and muddy. At first I had to make sure he was even breathing," Miller said.

He was, and a visit to the veterinarian confirmed the kitten, about 8 weeks old, was a little malnourished but overall in good shape.

No one near the new home where the cat was found had seen one roaming around, or had reported a missing kitty. Joe's search on Facebook for a lost cat in Deerfield showed nothing current.

"I didn't want to take anyone's pet away, but I also didn't want to take it to the shelter, either. They're already overcrowded with cats," he said.

Kim Miller was pleased with all of this.

"I texted her right away and said, I just rescued a cat," Joe said.

Thus the kitten joined the Miller menagerie. "Oliver," assigned a human name as Kim Miller does all their pets, has the run of the master bedroom.

During the day Oliver is quiet, Joe said, often napping under the bed during the day.

At night he's an active cat doing cat things.

"Yesterday he knocked a roll of paper towels off the fireplace and rolled it around the bedroom," Joe said.

But no window wells, no pipes.

"He'll always be an indoor cat," Miller said.