The Tauranga Fire Service was then called and sent a fire engine with four firefighters on board to assist at 6.30pm. Tauranga senior station officer Len Sabin said he shone a flashlight into the drain, which scared the cat and made it run deeper into the darkness.
"The cat was in a culvert that runs underneath the road. It was a reasonably narrow storm-water drain," Mr Sabin said.
"So we put a net over both exits and flushed it out with a bit of water. That seemed to do the trick." Selena's mum Sonya Chapman said flushing out the kitten from the drain pipe was "not as bad as it sounds".
Once rescued, the kitten was wrapped in a blanket and taken to the SPCA. A dead kitten was also removed from the drain.
Mrs Chapman said it was sad to see the kitten in such distress and she hoped the kittens were not dumped down the drain on purpose.