Love-at-first-sight is a real thing. Just ask any cat lover, and they’ll tell you it’s true. Many feline fanciers will happily impart the tale of how they felt when setting eyes on their kitty for the first time. Most would even tell you how they knew this special soul would be part of their life forevermore. And firefighter Brandon Mulvaney has recently learned this truth of love thanks to Huntley, a tiny kitten he rescued from a dire situation.

The bond between a man and his cat began with an early morning call to the Saginaw Fire Department in Michigan regarding an animal trapped in a storm drain. At one a.m. in the morning, Brandon, his fellow firefighters, and officers from the Saginaw County Animal Care & Control (SCACC) gathered around a maintenance hole to figure out how best to rescue a crying kitten stuck in the underground drains. In the end, Brandon would be the one to make the seven-foot drop into the pipe to locate the kitten.

Rescuing His Best Friend-To-Be

Once Brandon made it to the bottom of the utility hole, he had to contend with a smaller pipe to make it to where Huntley waited, in need of help.

As Brandon told People, “I crawled on my hands and knees into a smaller pipe approximately ten more feet to find the smaller pipe that the kitten was in.”

The pipe was too small for Brandon to continue, so he turned on his patience, explaining, “After a few minutes of waiting and calling for the cat, he peeked out of the pipe, and I grabbed him and carried him out. At that moment, I knew I wanted the kitten because he came right to me.”

And there, Brandon learned how a cat could capture your heart in an instant!

The Saginaw County Animal Care & Control shared a photo of Brandon and the absolutely adorable Huntley, sharing, “A huge SCACC THANK YOU to our Saginaw Firefighter Friend and Animal Hero Brandon Mulvaney. He, assisted by his crew, crawled down into a pipe 7 ft deep and over 10ft through another pipe at 1:00AM to rescue the precious heartbeat he is holding.”

As hard as it was to let go, Brandon handed his new kitty buddy over to SCACC officers so he could get the help he needed. At just a few weeks old, Huntley needed skilled care. Even with the promise the tiny ginger would be his once adoption time came, the kitten-smitten fireman couldn’t keep baby Huntley off his mind.

“I called once a week for about two and a half months until I got the approval for adoption,” Brandon admitted to People.

Huntley Heads Home

A couple of months after Huntley’s scary ordeal in the storm drain, the handsome kitten lad was ready for his forever home. Once they got the news, Brandon and his family headed to the shelter. And thanks to the BISSELL Pet Foundation’s “Empty the Shelters” campaign, the Mulvaney family has grown by four furry paws!

Now, the “spitfire,” as his dad calls him, is happy at home with his dad, mom, four human siblings, and a dog buddy to pal around with. Though he’s a wild kitten, Brandon says Huntley is quite the “love bug.”

Huntley and Brandon’s tale gives us another purrfect example of love at first sight!

H/T: www.ksby.com
Feature Image: Saginaw County Animal Care & Control/Facebook