Cat rescued by Shropshire firefighters after three days up a tree
It's a story of firefighting legend - the rescue of a cat stuck up a tree - and it happened in Shropshire.
The owners of one-and-a-half year old Vasa told firefighters that their beloved pet had probably been chasing a pigeon or a squirrel, and found himself 30 feet up a large conifer tree in Market Drayton.
So, at 5.23pm on Saturday fire control scrambled the on call firefighters at the town's station, in Maer Lane, to come and help. There they found an officer from the RSPCA who told them of Vasa's lofty predicament.
A spokesperson for the fire service said: "On speaking to the owners of Vasa it was established that they had been attempting all sorts over the last three days to try and get him down, including trying to reach him off a ladder themselves but they could not get high enough."
The incident commander carried out a dynamic risk assessment of the scene, to try and establish a plan of how Vasa could be rescued.
The spokesperson added: "Unfortunately due to the limited access to get equipment to the site, and the confined space available for the crew to work in, the situation initially seemed to be claw-ful, and could well prove to be an im-paws-ible one to solve."
Continuing with the cat puns, the spokes-paw-son added that they remained "paws-itive, and it was determined that there was a paws-ibility to use a nine metre ladder to try and gain access to Vasa."
They had to carry the ladder across a neighbouring field to gain initial access, before slowly manoeuvring it into position.
A cordless electric saw had to be used to cut branches off the tree, to allow the ladder to be slowly raised bit by bit.
A crew member climbed a ladder and eventually managed to get within grabbing distance.
"The firefighter at the head of the ladder managed to reach Vasa and get control of them, before safely carrying them to the ground," said the spokesperson.
Vasa was handed over to the RSPCA officer for a check up, before being reunited with his grateful owners, and taken home without any injuries to enjoy some much needed food and drink.
"The crew made up all the equipment before returning to station feline good," said the spokesperson.
