The Stuck Cat

This isn’t the cat.

Every once in a while we get that dreaded call – Cat struck in the tree.  Our usual response is, “How many cat skeletons have you seen in a tree?”  We usually don’t get a great response from that question, but we still have to ask it. 

Today’s cat wasn’t stuck in a tree but in a outside chimney.  The chimney was part of a fireplace that stood about eight feet tall.  A older man with a half Russian accent along with a lisp met us by waiving with a frantic look on his face.  He told us how the cat had been stuck all night and we would have to break a wall down to rescue the cat.  I told him to show me the chimney and we will see. 

The chimney was up against the Russian’s make-shift house.  Once again he franticly told us to please break the wall to rescue the cat.  First, I told the firefighters to look inside because I could not here any noise coming from the chimney.  He looked and sure enough no cat.  We dropped a long stick down the chimney and no cat noise came out.  The Russian continued to beg us to break the wall and get the cat out.  I finally said with a stern voice, “we are not going to break the wall and if we need to get into the chimney we will do it on the side facing your  house.” Which meant we would have to damage part of his house.  The Russian didn’t like that.  We looked with our thermal Imaging Camera and still no cat.  The Russian finally conceded that there was not a cat in the chimney.  But it was not easy to convince him.