Tree felled as frantic feline freed

In what can only be described as a cliche, Blenheim volunteer firefighters came to the rescue of a cat stuck up a tree.

But unlike the often-told story, no firefighter dressed in full firefighter attire climbed the tree. Instead, they simply chopped it down, feline and all.

Sophie Bashford, eight, and her mother, Liz, raised the alarm after they saw what looked like a “black and white possum” about 10 metres up a tree near the Taylor River yesterday morning. It turned out to be the cat.

Mrs Bashford said she was a “passionate animal lover”, with two cats of her own, BJ and Smudge, and she felt compelled to help the animal.

“We’d be devastated if either of them disappeared. They are really members of the family.”

After failing to rouse anyone at the SPCA and Animal Rescue, Mrs Bashford reluctantly called the fire brigade.

Five firefighters took to the dead tree with a saw, but before they could lay hands on the clambering cat, it leaped from the branches and raced away through long grass into the safety of nearby gardens.

“I wanted to give it a cuddle, but he was off. He didn’t look too bad at all,” Mrs Bashford said.

“The fire guys did a wonderful job.”

She said Sophie would bake a fruit cake for the firefighters involved.

Acting station officer Darrell Bate said callouts to help out cats in distress were rare, and to have one “actually stuck … a fair percentage of them don’t go like that”.

“It was well wedged.”

Mr Bate said rescuing cats was “definitely not something we want requests for all the time, but if a circumstance looks like it can be dealt with like that one, then it’s not problem.”