Cat in drain rescue
A LUCKY cat used up one of his nine lives last week after becoming stuck in the drains below the streets of Port William for two days.
Toot, a seven year old male tabby, owned by Gazette reporter Louise Kerr, had been missing from his home in the Square since late on Tuesday night.
During his nocturnal wanderings he had managed to enter an underground soak away drainage system, possibly from an outlet at the harbour, and, being a curious cat, had travelled deep into the pipes under the seaside village. But having got in he couldn't find his way back out through the maze of drains.
On Thursday morning the Scottish SPCA were called out after Main Street resident Mary Maxwell reported hearing a distressed cat's cries coming from underneath her conservatory floor.
But local SSPCA Ambulance Driver Tracy Cannon soon realised that it was going to be a very complicated rescue operation.
She said: "When I arrived at the address I saw that holes had been cut into the garden and the lady, kindly helped by her neighbours and a local joiner, had already gone to great efforts to have some of the floorboards and concrete in her conservatory uplifted.
"The pipe-work was exposed and we could see and hear the cat below, meowing, but we just couldn't get access to him and eventually he moved further along the pipes and away from us.
"We traced the pipes out into the road and lifted several manholes to try to find him. Luckily, while we were conducting our search the cat's owner, Louise Kerr, arrived and came over to help".
Louise continues the story: "I had been out trailing the streets at all hours searching for him, but he had just disappeared off the face of the earth. Anytime he's gone missing in the past I've found him down at the harbour stuck in the lobster creels.
"It was only when I contacted the local vets to report him missing at lunchtime on Thursday that I was told a lady in Port William had also phoned them to report a cat stuck in her drains. I knew it must be Toot so I rushed home to help find him.
"When I arrived I was overwhelmed at the amount of people who had turned up to help rescue him. The floorboards in Mary's porch had been lifted, exposing the drain, and when he heard my voice, Toot's wee face appeared beneath the grill. He was yelling his head off, but there was no way to get him out as the drain was encased in thick concrete. Local joiner Robert Smith then started to cut the drain out with a circular saw to get him out.
Thankfully, the noise of the saw scared him back down the pipes and when I called his name from the manhole that had been opened up across the road, he heard me and made his way back along the drains towards me and freedom.
"He was very hungry when I got him home, but after a some food and a big drink of milk he was quite happily lying outside sunbathing half an hour later- none the worse for wear.
"He was very lucky he went missing in a place like Port William and he was doubly lucky that Mary heard his cries for help. Both Mary and are very grateful to all the local people who appeared on the scene to help rescue him".
SSPCA officer Tracy added: "We were delighted to be able to reunite Louise with Toot after what must have been a scary ordeal for the wee cat. Hopefully he's learned his lesson and won't go anywhere near a drain pipe again!"
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Weather for Newton Stewart
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
