Animal in distress
When Guinness wasn't home after being away a couple of hours, I decided to climb up on the roof of the next-door movie theater to look for her, and it didn't take long for me to find her. She had jumped off the roof, on a lower-lying roof (3 meters down), and from there on a street-level 'garden', enclosed by walls at all sides, 4 meters high at its lowest point. And there she was sitting, meowing at me, asking me to come and get her. But I couldn't. I didn't dare climb down with my only 2 meters high stair. So there I was, with my kitty in sight, and I couldn't help her.
After having walked around the building, which is currently being renovated, hoping to find a number of the contractor at work -who wasn't working as it's a public holiday-, I returned home without anything useful. Then we decided to call upon the fire department for help in saving our kitty. The lady at the phone asked me multiple times if there was any way for her to climb back up herself, but after hearing 'no' a couple of times and consulting her colleague, she said to put the call through to the local fire department, whom arrived, 8 man strong, after 15 minutes or so. Of course, they couldn't find our home, ringing the doorbell one block down at a different number 7, so I got a call on my cell to come down and meet them, which I did.
Together, we climbed up the roof of the cinema, and I showed them where she was sitting. After that, she was apparently scared off by the noise and amount of people, and by the time they had gotten a longer ladder from their truck, she had vanished and proved hard to find. They have been searching the 6 square meter 'garden' for 5 minutes or so, but then gave up, asking me to keep an eye on things and call again when she turned up again.
So, when they were gone, I went back up on the roof, and heard her meowing, again. This time I decided to get over my fear of an improper landing, and took my short ladder and successfully descended down to the lower roof, and from there I could actually see her, hiding in a drainage pipe the firefighters had actually looked into. I called Samantha to call the fire department again, and stayed there, keeping an eye on our little girl. (Okay, I was forced to do so, I didn't dare to climb back up again.)
Ten minutes later, a single firefighter showed up, who had walked from their post, which is only 3 minutes away by foot, to avoid an unnecessary deployment of rather expensive fire trucks. After consulting me by phone however, he decided the fire truck was necessary, as we needed the ladder they had again. So, another 10 minutes later, I heard the truck backing up to our house at the other side of the movie theater. And not much later, there they were again, and we decided it was better for me to go down alone, to avoid scaring Guinness off again.
Not much later I was down at the drainage pipe and could see her butt sticking out, which I got hold of to pull her out. She fully covered in mud and dirt, her fur completely wet and cold we walked up the ladder together, but nearly up, she decided to flee from my arms and was grabbed by one of the fireman, whom couldn't get a hold of her, and she ran up the wall, straight back home, leaving the fireman trying to holding her with a scar on his face. Back home, Samantha and 2 other firefighters were somewhat stunned by the fast-running kitty, who luckily decided to walk under the bed, instead of over the bed, which was fully covered by clean laundry.
For the second time that day, we thanked the fire fighters for dropping by and saving our kitty in distress. After they had left, Samantha, me and Guinnesss took a much-needed shower, as all three of us were now covered in the dirt she had been hiding in for hours.
After having walked around the building, which is currently being renovated, hoping to find a number of the contractor at work -who wasn't working as it's a public holiday-, I returned home without anything useful. Then we decided to call upon the fire department for help in saving our kitty. The lady at the phone asked me multiple times if there was any way for her to climb back up herself, but after hearing 'no' a couple of times and consulting her colleague, she said to put the call through to the local fire department, whom arrived, 8 man strong, after 15 minutes or so. Of course, they couldn't find our home, ringing the doorbell one block down at a different number 7, so I got a call on my cell to come down and meet them, which I did.
Together, we climbed up the roof of the cinema, and I showed them where she was sitting. After that, she was apparently scared off by the noise and amount of people, and by the time they had gotten a longer ladder from their truck, she had vanished and proved hard to find. They have been searching the 6 square meter 'garden' for 5 minutes or so, but then gave up, asking me to keep an eye on things and call again when she turned up again.
So, when they were gone, I went back up on the roof, and heard her meowing, again. This time I decided to get over my fear of an improper landing, and took my short ladder and successfully descended down to the lower roof, and from there I could actually see her, hiding in a drainage pipe the firefighters had actually looked into. I called Samantha to call the fire department again, and stayed there, keeping an eye on our little girl. (Okay, I was forced to do so, I didn't dare to climb back up again.)
Ten minutes later, a single firefighter showed up, who had walked from their post, which is only 3 minutes away by foot, to avoid an unnecessary deployment of rather expensive fire trucks. After consulting me by phone however, he decided the fire truck was necessary, as we needed the ladder they had again. So, another 10 minutes later, I heard the truck backing up to our house at the other side of the movie theater. And not much later, there they were again, and we decided it was better for me to go down alone, to avoid scaring Guinness off again.
Not much later I was down at the drainage pipe and could see her butt sticking out, which I got hold of to pull her out. She fully covered in mud and dirt, her fur completely wet and cold we walked up the ladder together, but nearly up, she decided to flee from my arms and was grabbed by one of the fireman, whom couldn't get a hold of her, and she ran up the wall, straight back home, leaving the fireman trying to holding her with a scar on his face. Back home, Samantha and 2 other firefighters were somewhat stunned by the fast-running kitty, who luckily decided to walk under the bed, instead of over the bed, which was fully covered by clean laundry.
For the second time that day, we thanked the fire fighters for dropping by and saving our kitty in distress. After they had left, Samantha, me and Guinnesss took a much-needed shower, as all three of us were now covered in the dirt she had been hiding in for hours.