It turns out that all you need to get two trapped kittens and their mother down from a ceiling is a can of tuna.

That’s what was used recently to capture two kittens and a mother cat who became­trapped inside a void of the break room at the Fresno State Foundation offices on Chestnut Avenue. Two Facilities Management employees came to the felines’ rescue.

According to Meredith Sandrik, of Fresno State’s Facilites Management, several employees at the foundation office “heard kittens meowing” above their heads.­They soon discovered that a mother cat had apparently taken two of her kittens through an exhaust fan and into the ceiling two weeks ago, and then became trapped in a space where an oven hood had been years before, Sandrik told The Collegian.

Plant Operations carpenter Matt Montez responded to the call for help. Sandrik said Montez heard the kittens, too, but at first couldn’t get to them through the ceiling. When he removed some lighting fixtures, he discovered that the kittens weren’t alone and that the mother cat was trapped, too.

HVAC engineer Ruben Silva arrived to help Montez figure out a way to get the three felines out safely, according to Sandrik. The two eventually moved some vents, added Sandrik. Montez and Silva enticed the cats with the help of a can of tuna a foundation employee happened to have on hand. Montez was able to grab the kittens as they dashed toward him.

The kittens have since been adopted and are in their new home.

Fresno State has a trap-neuter-release program for feral cats that live on campus. Foundation accounting technician Pam Woody thanked campus administrators for having the program.

“It’s helping us catch momma cat so we don’t have any more kittens on our roof,” she said.