Late one evening in Mesa, Arizona, Victoria Reese got a panicked call from her boyfriend. Over FaceTime, he showed her something she could hardly believe — a tiny kitten’s head poking out of an air conditioning unit, crying softly for help.
Reese, a lifelong cat lover and experienced rescuer, didn’t hesitate. She rushed to the scene — but when she arrived, the situation was far worse than she had imagined.
“Through FaceTime, I didn’t understand how severe the situation was,” Reese later shared on TikTok. “When I got there, she was stuck inside this 400- to 500-pound industrial AC unit — and it was really bad.”
The kitten’s head was wedged through a small opening, her little body completely trapped inside the heavy machinery. She was weak, barely moving, and her head hung limp.
Thankfully, the unit wasn’t plugged in, so Reese and her boyfriend could safely try to free her. They carefully tilted the enormous machine onto its side, searching for any way to reach her. They used olive oil and dish soap to try to ease her out, but nothing worked.
After nearly an hour, they called in reinforcements — the local fire department. Together, the group worked patiently and gently, inch by inch, until finally, after two tense hours, the kitten slipped free.
“I’m just so glad we were able to get her out and save her,” Reese said.
Reese immediately decided she couldn’t part with the tiny survivor. In honor of the tools that helped save her, she named the kitten Olive — after the olive oil and Palmolive soap used in the rescue.
At the vet, Reese learned Olive was only two weeks old. The ordeal had taken a toll, but with round-the-clock care, warmth, and bottle feeding, Olive began to recover quickly.
“She’s learning how to walk properly and is starting to play a little bit,” Reese said. “Seeing her grow so fast is making me so emotional.”
Now, Olive spends her days wrapped in blankets, purring contentedly in her forever home — a world away from the cold metal trap she was once stuck in.
“She’s part of our family forever,” Reese said. “That little face sticking out of the AC unit led us to one of the best things that ever happened to us.”
