Four firefighters free 6 month old kitten
Published: January 26, 2007
Paramedic and firefighter Rob Illingworth put years of experience and training to good use yesterday during a daring high-altitude ladder rescue on Bealey Avenue.
Six-month-old kitten Texie, brought down from his arboreal escapade by no fewer than four firefighters, ran off with no word of thanks.
Illingworth, a St Albans firefighter, scaled a 10m ladder to put the four-legged furball in the classic over-the-shoulder fireman’s lift.
“Well, I had him over my shoulder and relied on its claws to hold on. He was pretty keen to get to the ground,” he said.
Illingworth said cats get themselves into that kind of strife about twice a year.
“We try to convince people the cat will come down by itself – I mean, you don’t see a lot of dead cats in trees – but by the time most people call us, they’ve already exhausted all other avenues and the owners is as distressed as the cats,” he said.
“It doesn’t do anyone any harm to get out and save a cat.”
Officer-in-charge Peter McArdle said the 8.30am rescue was prompted by simultaneous calls from the cat’s owner and her neighbour.
“This cat was in quite a lot of distress. By the time we got there it was clinging on for dear life and it was pretty gusty at the top of that tree,” he said.
“But Rob’s a trained paramedic, so he would have been there if the cat had needed any resus (resuscitation).”
Texie’s owner, Dr Wendy Rose Isbell, said she had no idea how long Texie had been up the tree but she was delighted he had been pulled to safety. Her other cat, Timmy, could not bear to watch.
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