NEW YORK — The epic search for Molly, the black, 11-month old fraidy-cat stuck in the wall of a Greenwich Village food store for two weeks, ended in jubilation Friday night after rescue workers spotted her in a small opening and quickly yanked her away to safety.
Molly's return came at 10:13 p.m., prompting a crowd of dozens of reporters, photographers and neighborhood residents who had gathered outside the shop, Myers of Keswick at 634 Hudson St., to erupt in cheers. Rescue workers said they had traced Molly's plaintive meows to an area near the ceiling of the shop, drilled a small hole, and spotted her crouched and pinned in a dark crawl space between that building and one next to it.
"I saw her eyes shining in the light," said Kevin Clifford, 33, the worker who pulled her out. "I was calling her and she was meowing to me. She was scared."
Peter Myers, the relieved owner of the shop, said he took Molly shortly after she was freed and fed her a lavish meal of lean belly pork and sardines in olive oil.
During the two week-ordeal, the media hubbub grew apace, and cat agnostics grumbled about folderol.
For the past two weeks, Molly, a mouser of wandering disposition for the British specialty-food shop, had been ensnared or spooked or disoriented somewhere between two buildings on Hudson Street, possibly in a dank, narrow 30-foot-long horizontal space at basement level.
Until Friday night, nothing had enticed Molly out of the darkness. Still, her faint meows could be heard.
Without food, rescued workers said, Molly might have lasted three weeks at most, so each passing day became more dangerous. Even if she had caught an occasional mouse for food and licks the walls for moisture, they said, her situation had been urgent.
Earlier Friday, Josh Schermer, a volunteer who has helped in the search for the last 11 days and had heard Molly's cries, said she sounded "like she wants to get out more now."
A six-person rescue crew also began drilling additional holes in walls or widening holes they started earlier in the week. They were searching the space between Myers' shop and 632 Hudson St., which houses Hudson Bar and Books.
Feraz Mohammed, a city animal control officer, said an anonymous donor concerned about Molly's plight had pledged to cover the rescue costs, including the drilling of holes. Mohammed did not elaborate.
Friday night, rescuers had put out more traps in hopes of enticing Molly.
In a drizzly rain, crowds of bystanders ebbed and flowed Friday on this corner near Horatio Street, sometimes pressing against the yellow police caution tape.
Cat lovers, including an elderly man wearing a pin with a cat wearing a halo and wings, watched expectantly. He kept blowing a dog whistle in a fruitless attempt to coax Molly out.
Maxine Albert ("I'm a psychic, but I also do pets") stood on the sidewalk, shouting down into the basement where rescuers worked. "I feel the cat in the wall on the lower left-hand side," she shouted. "My image is she is trapped."
A second psychic, who did not identify herself to reporters, tried to take her message directly to a City Department of Buildings inspector who appeared to rebuff her. She reacted with anger.
Rescuers had tried, to no avail, a pet psychologist, drills, high-tech miniature cameras on cables, cat food and raw fish, as well as oral enticements, presumably including the smacking noises peculiar to cat owners.
Outside the shop, a half-dozen television crews, as well as radio and print reporters, milled about, as passers-by hurled drive-by derision. One shouted, "This is the fine journalism of New York City!"
Lanie Kagan, who lives across the street and knows Molly, said, "At first I thought this was sweet, but now it's just insane." She added, "This has turned into a spectacle about a spectacle."
Molly's meow was heard round the world.
At one point, the Internet search engine Google counted at least 359 articles about Molly posted on the Web, including dispatches in The Sun in Britain, The Independent in South Africa, Leading the Charge in Australia and La Tribune in France ("Sauvetage difficile pour la chatte Molly a New York").
Apparently, curiosity hurt the cat, according to Myers, whose store specializes in delicacies like Scotch eggs and Cumberland sausage.
Molly had last been seen on March 31 at the shop when at some point she ran away and into a media circus.
After Molly was rescued, Myers said that the cat would spend the night at his daughter's apartment, but would return to the store Saturday.
He said he did not think Molly would repeat her disappearing act. "I'd like to think she might have learned a lesson," he said.
Contributing: Colin Moynihan, Anahad O'Connor.