Sunday, February 12, 2017

United Kingdom: Firefighters spend four hours battling to free a chubby cat named Mickey trapped in an eight-inch gap between two walls

UNITED KINGDOM -- Firefighters spent four hours rescuing a fat cat after it got stuck in an eight-inch gap in-between two walls.

Owner Mark Colclough called the RSPCA after he found his pet Mickey squeezed in a tiny hole between the side of his house and his neighbor's garage in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.


Officers rang for Staffordshire Fire and Rescue, with a crew forced to remove bricks with a hand chisel to widen the gap.

They then cut through a cabinet and another brick wall to make a hole in which Mickey was slowly pushed through.

Pictures taken by RSPCA officers show the cat, which is covered in dust and grime, wedged in the narrow gap with its head pressed against the wall.

However, incredibly, the pet managed to escape without any injuries.

Mr Colclough said: 'Mickey is a very timid cat who is scared of his own shadow.

'He never goes out the front door but we think he sneaked out when we weren't aware, panicked because it was unknown territory then tried to get to the back of the house, which he is more familiar with, through this very small gap between our house and our neighbor's garage.


'Unfortunately the gap is very narrow, around eight inches wide, definitely not wide enough for a cat to get through.

'He'd somehow managed to get halfway down the gap - about 10ft down - before getting so stuck that he couldn't move at all. The only way we could get him out was by removing bricks from our neighbor's garage.

'When we managed to get to him he was frozen solid and he was very dazed.'

RSPCA officer Cara Gibbon, who helped rescue Mickey, said: 'We exhausted every option to get him out but Mickey couldn't move at all.

'I decided to contact Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service to help us and they were absolutely amazing.


'With their help we moved each brick by brick with a hand chisel to try and reach Mickey but we quickly found I was unable to lift him out as he was so wedged.

'We had to cut through a cabinet and then through another brick wall whilst I held him to stop him from moving.

'We eventually made a hole and I had to carefully push Mickey towards the hole until he slowly came out, by which time it was 2am.

'We get called to rescue animals which have got themselves stuck quite regularly, however Mickey was the worst case of a wedged animal I have ever seen. He was completely jammed.

'We're glad that he was safely released and thankfully he did not have any injuries, just a slightly bruised pride.'