Friday Cat rescue

I like showing nice people helping out animals in the work week’s last post. Reader Graham called my attention to an article and video from the Belfast Telegraph about a cat trapped in (and rescued from) a wall in Northern Ireland. The paper reports this:

A man who started demolishing his partly-built house when “the walls started meowing” has safely returned stricken feline Francee to her owner.

Campbell Baird (46) was left baffled on Tuesday evening when he went to check on the building work at the site of the new-build on Woodburn Road in Carrickfergus.

“I could hear the walls meowing and I couldn’t understand how,” he said.

“There’s no stairs yet, but there’s a set of ladders to get to the first floor – I knew whatever it was, it had to have got in there from upstairs.”

. . . Campbell, a fire extinguisher engineer, consulted with his girlfriend Slavka Smith, who informed him that cats can climb ladders.

“I went on YouTube and right enough, they can,” he said.

“Once I realised the cat had fallen into the cavity between the walls, I went and got a drill, chisel and hammer, I was happy to do it.

Click on the screenshot to go to the article with the video:

“It didn’t cause too much damage, I just knocked a few bricks out.”

After successfully chipping away at the brick work to make a hole big enough for 10-year-old Francee to escape, Mr Baird, (right) took to social media to help track down the owner.

He posted on Facebook to astonished friends: “Just spent the last hour knocking holes in my wall to get it out.

“Think its front leg is broken. Not looking any damages repaired, just glad to get her out.”

Luckily, Francee escaped unharmed and two hours later she was safely returned home – with a tail to tell.

All’s well that ends well, and we have a cat with eight lives left. By the way, where did the myth that cats have nine lives come from? DO NOT read the Wikipedia article on this; not only doesn’t answer the question, but it will ruin the good mood you just acquired.