Pulled Out Backward: How Lola the Cat Survived About Five Days Upside Down Inside a Franklin Square Wall

The moment that ended Lola's ordeal was as awkward as it was astonishing. After days trapped upside down behind a wall in Franklin Square, the cat finally came out backward through a narrow opening and into a crate lined with towels. Everything that came before that was a mix of patience, cutting tools, cameras, and the kind of hiding instinct many cats show when a home is in upheaval. In Lola's case, that instinct turned a moving-day retreat into a rescue that even the man leading it feared might not end with her alive.

Lola's family had been moving out of their old apartment, a second-floor unit in Franklin Square, when the cat slipped under a floorboard to hide. It was the kind of dark, enclosed spot cats often seek out when a familiar space suddenly becomes loud and unsettled. But this hiding place gave way to something much more dangerous.

From there, Lola fell behind a first-floor wall and became stuck upside down. She remained trapped that way for most of about five days, without food or water. By the time help arrived, the problem was no longer simply finding a frightened cat. It was figuring out how to reach one lodged inside the structure of the building without causing more distress or losing access to her altogether.

John DeBacker, a Long Island rescuer known locally for animal calls, was brought in with his team. At first, they tried to coax Lola out rather than break into the wall. They set up a food-and-camera trap, hoping hunger and a clear route would do the work that tools might complicate. But Lola reportedly avoided the setup whenever she came out at night, leaving the team with the same basic problem every time morning arrived. She was in there, but not in a way that allowed anyone to safely grab her.

Finding a cat you cannot see

Once the trap failed, the rescue shifted from waiting to construction. DeBacker and a contractor started cutting into the wall with an electric saw. That was the only way forward if Lola was going to be reached, but even then the task was far from simple. A wall can hide a cat as effectively as it hides pipes, insulation, and framing, and rescuers had to work toward her without making the situation worse.

An endoscopic camera became the key to the next step. Using the camera, the team was able to locate Lola inside the wall cavity. At one point, they switched from the louder saw to a quieter drill when she appeared to grow nervous at the noise. That detail says a lot about how delicate the rescue had become. This was not just demolition. It was a careful effort to enlarge a path to a cat that was frightened, confined, and in a position that had already kept her trapped for days.

DeBacker later said he had begun to lose hope that Lola would come out alive. That makes the final extraction feel all the more improbable. When the opening was finally right, he pulled her backward through the narrow hole and placed her in a towel-lined crate. The image is striking because it is so unglamorous. No dramatic sprint, no easy reach into open space. Just a cat eased out in reverse after spending days hidden inside a wall most people would never imagine could hold a living animal.

What kept her alive

The rescue answered one question, but it immediately raised another. How had Lola survived there at all?

Emergency veterinarians who examined her found insulation in her body, and it appeared that she had eaten insulation while trapped. DeBacker described her survival as pretty miraculous. Given the conditions, that does not read as exaggeration. Lola had reportedly gone about five days without food or water, and cats can run into serious trouble much sooner than many people realize.

Veterinary internal medicine experts note that when a cat does not eat for 24 to 72 hours, the body can begin rapidly sending fat stores to the liver, creating a risk of hepatic lipidosis, also known as fatty liver disease. That danger sits alongside the obvious problems of dehydration and general weakness. In other words, even after a cat is physically freed, the health crisis may not be over.

That may be part of what happened once Lola was back home. She struggled with a poor appetite after returning, and her family took her back to the veterinarian to determine the cause. Cats with hepatic lipidosis may be treated with feeding tubes to provide nutrition. The reports on Lola do not go further than saying she was taken back for veterinary evaluation, but that follow-up itself is an important part of the story. A rescue can end at the wall, while recovery continues somewhere much quieter, in an exam room and then at home.

The rescuer behind the wall cut

DeBacker was not new to this sort of work. He serves as vice president of Long Island Cat/Kitten Solution, a Syosset-based nonprofit founded in 2006. He has been rescuing cats for at least 15 years and has four cats of his own.

His past calls show the range of situations that can land a cat in danger. In May 2025, he helped free a kitten stuck in the undercarriage of a car in Huntington after a five-mile drive. Another rescue involved a cat on LIRR tracks in April 2026. Lola's case was different from both, but it fit the same pattern of highly specific emergencies that fall outside what many people picture when they think of animal rescue.

That helps explain why a volunteer rescuer and a regional nonprofit ended up central to this Franklin Square story. Under New York State law, municipalities are not legally required to license or shelter stray and feral cats. According to the Town of North Hempstead, that leaves much of the responsibility to regional nonprofits. In practice, that can mean the difference between a difficult situation waiting for official intervention and a specialist like DeBacker showing up with the experience, contacts, and willingness to cut into a wall for a cat hidden behind it.

The moving-day lesson in Lola's story

Lola's ordeal also points back to the moment it began. DeBacker advised cat owners to secure their pets before moving starts because the process can frighten them into hiding. For cat people, that advice will sound familiar, but the circumstances here show exactly why it matters.

Feline behavior specialists say moving can disrupt a cat's sense of territory so severely that many instinctively search for dark, enclosed places. A floorboard gap, the space behind furniture, the recesses of a closet, a partially packed room. To a human, these are just awkward corners of a home in transition. To a stressed cat, they can look like the safest option available.

The ASPCA's moving guidelines recommend isolating cats in a locked safe room, such as a bathroom, or keeping them secured in travel carriers throughout packing and moving days. That kind of planning is meant to prevent exactly the sort of panic-driven hiding that sent Lola under the floorboards.

In the end, Lola's story is memorable because the rescue scene is so unusual: a cat trapped upside down inside a wall, located by camera, approached with cutouts and drills, and finally pulled out backward into a crate. But the deeper reason it lingers is that the first step was not unusual at all. A cat got scared during a move and looked for cover. Everything that followed came from how small that opening was, and how far down it led.