It's A Funny Business

Save the Kitten!

When Vic Gessner struck up a conversation with his former high school buddy Jim Harper outside a local drive-thru, he didn't suspect the kind of adventure he was about to get into. Vic, who is mayor of Strasburg, Ohio, and a Schwarze Supervac owner, learned his old friend had a problem. His little girl's kitten had fallen into the floor drain in his garage and was now 25 feet down in an impossible predicament. It had already been trapped for two and a half days, and there seemed to be no earthly way to rescue the forlorn creature.

"What you need," offered a bystander to the conversation, "is a super sucker." Suddenly Vic was struck with an inspiration. "I'm your man," he told Harper. Returning shortly with his Supervac and helper Dan Page, Vic proceeded to Harper's house to see what could be done. The job called for some real ingenuity.

Vic and Dan brought the truck as close as they could, but still the hand hose was more than 10 feet short. A helpful neighbor produced a long piece of 4" pvc pipe which was quickly duct taped onto the end of the hand hose. Someone went to block off the drain's air vent; then Vic revved up the Supervac. This was certainly a long shot, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Vic had no more than hit the throttle when Dan, who was monitoring the hose, hollered, "There she goes!" Vic shut it right down, but not before the kitten was sucked more than 50 feet and deposited smack into the hopper. Much to everyone's delight, especially that of Jim's daughter Theresa, the animal seemed hungry and dirty, but otherwise okay.

In hindsight, Vic says it would have been wise to fashion some sort of soft screen over the intake tube. He speculated the kitten may have been saved by being sucked in tail first and absorbed the impact of landing, with eight of its lives still intact.

We understand that it was one of Vic's best paying jobs: a Thanksgiving Day phone call from Theresa expressing her heartfelt gratitude for the safe return of her precious kitten.

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