Colin Killay, Orange’s superintendent of highway, cemeteries and parks, and Jennifer Arsenault, the animal control officer for Athol and Orange, rescued six baby foxes from a storm drain on East River Street on Friday. COURTESY PHOTO/ORANGE POLICE DEPARTMENT

Colin Killay, Orange’s superintendent of highway, cemeteries and parks, and Jennifer Arsenault, the animal control officer for Athol and Orange, rescued six baby foxes from a storm drain on East River Street on Friday. COURTESY PHOTO/ORANGE POLICE DEPARTMENT

Six baby foxes were rescued from a storm drain on East River Street in Orange on Friday. COURTESY PHOTO/ORANGE POLICE DEPARTMENT

Colin Killay, Orange’s superintendent of highway, cemeteries and parks, and Jennifer Arsenault, the animal control officer for Athol and Orange, rescued six baby foxes from a storm drain on East River Street on Friday. COURTESY PHOTO/ORANGE POLICE DEPARTMENT

ORANGE — Six baby gray foxes are under the care of a Winchendon wildlife rehabilitator after being rescued from a catch basin on East River Street in Orange.

Cassandra Tompkins received the animals, which she estimates to be 2 to 3 months old, on Friday evening and has them recuperating in a quarantine enclosure on her property, where they will stay until they are released, likely in September.

“They’re OK. They’re doing fine,” Tompkins said. “They’re scared, so I’m not interacting with them that much. But they are eating and drinking well, which is always good.”

Jennifer Arsenault, the animal control officer for Orange and Athol, explained she was tied up with a separate matter at roughly 10:30 a.m. when the Shelburne Control Dispatch Center informed her of a report of a fox in a catch basin. She made her way to Orange when she finished up that other matter and was informed there were five or six baby foxes in the basin. Arsenault said she got the reporting party’s phone number and met the woman at the site at King Pine Apartments.

“When I got there, my biggest issue was I needed to get the grate open,” she said, adding that she called the Orange Police Department, which in turn asked Colin Killay, superintendent of highway, cemeteries and parks, to respond. “He was awesome.”

The animals were safely removed by around 1:15 p.m.

Killay said he used a pry bar and a shovel to lift up the grate, which he estimated weighs about 150 pounds. He said nearby residents said the foxes had been in the catch basin, on private property, for about a week. He said it’s possible their mother stored them there thinking they would be safe. He mentioned Monday’s rain could have drowned them if they had still been down there. Killay said he had previously retrieved mail, credit cards and rings from catch basins, but never an animal.

“They all made it out safe and sound,” he said. “It’s cool. They were cute as heck. And I’m glad that they still get a chance and nothing happened to them.”

Arsenault said she used a catch pole — seen in movies used by municipal dog catchers — to carefully snatch up each fox and place them into a carrier. She brought the furry animals to her facility in Athol and gave them water and Pedialyte per the instructions of Tompkins, who is also the animal control officer for Winchendon and Templeton.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.

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