What started as a fairly routine call for the RSPCA turned into a dramatic five-hour rescue mission and ended in an emotional reunion between a missing cat and his ecstatic owners.
When RSPCA Animal Rescue Officer (ARO) Sarah Whatton was called to Madeira Road in Portsmouth on Sunday (15 March), there was nothing extraordinary about the call. The RSPCA receives dozens of calls every year about cats who get stuck in awkward situations.
Sarah said: “We were concerned about the cat because the caller said he was last seen at around 3am, so he could have been stuck in the gap for some time. Despite this, he was bright and alert.
“We think he’d fallen from a first-floor roof and got stuck in a tight 10cm (4in) gap between two brick conservatories.”
Homeowner Catherine Edwards said: “I was in bed but could see my neighbour in my garden peering down the side of the houses so went out to see what was going on.
The cat had been straying in the area for some time and regularly visited our garden; our neighbour was feeding him.
“He was so far in and the gap was so tiny, there was no way I could reach him, so I called the RSPCA for help.”
Despite the best efforts of the RSPCA, the cat proved tricky to reach.
Sarah added: “The cat was stuck about 1.5m (4.9ft) in so I couldn’t reach him. I tried to tape my grasper to my extending reach-and-rescue pole and finally got hold of him but there was no give at all; he was completely wedged in.
“I was really concerned about causing him serious injury if I tried to pull him out.”
Sarah called her colleague, ARO Morgan Ellison, for help and also called in a team from Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service to assist.
Morgan said: “We tried for hours to free the cat; we tried prising sticks underneath him to support his weight while pulling with the grasper, but due to the rubble underneath, we couldn’t get enough purchase.
“Firefighters devised a pulley system to try to get a rope around his chest but there wasn’t space around him to get it over his hips.”
The fire teams had to leave to respond to other jobs but Sarah and Morgan refused to give up. They looked at drilling into the gap from inside one of the houses but there was concern about the cat’s stress levels.
“After about five hours of trying and as the light was disappearing, we sought advice from our colleagues who specialise in remote sedation and contacted a local vet to come and sedate the cat so we could try to pull him out more firmly, without risking him panicking and struggling.
“Between us we rigged together a makeshift ‘jab stick’ so we were able to safely administer the injection into the tiny gap where the cat was wedged.
“The vet told us once the sedation took effect we had one minute to free him before there was serious risk of breathing difficulties, so we were really up against the clock. We were concerned about injuring him, but we’d run out of other options.
“It took all three of us to pull him out, and by some absolute miracle, he came out unharmed.
“What was even more surprising was that when we scanned him for a microchip, we learned he’d been reported missing back in 2022!”
Sarah and Morgan quickly set to tracking down his owners and returned him to them on Mother’s Day – which also happened to be the father’s birthday too!
Sarah added: “They were shocked and delighted to have their cat – Alfie – back after all this time. I spoke to Alfie’s owners the next day to learn that he is settling back in at home very well and has been enjoying chin rubs and purring loudly.
“I’d really like to thank everyone who assisted on this rescue. It’s a great reminder of what we can achieve together for animal welfare.
“Finding a vet to come out on a Sunday afternoon is not easy but Rob Lowe from the Lighthouse 24-hour A&E Pet Hospital was absolutely incredible and didn’t hesitate to attend.
“It really was a team effort and the homeowner kept us all going through the cold and rain with tea and biscuits!
“It was such a crazy rescue, but it had such a lovely ending – and it just shows how important it is to have your pets microchipped.”
Alfie’s owner Mandy Davis was shocked when she received the call from the RSPCA officers to say Alfie had been found. A heartwarming video shows the moment Mandy was reunited with Alfie in the garage of Catherine’s home, and she can be heard saying tearily: ‘I thought I’d never see you again.’
She said: “Alfie went missing in July 2022; it was the week after we moved house. We weren’t letting him out but he managed to squeeze through a tiny gap in a window that had been left slightly ajar and that was it; he was gone.
“I couldn’t quite believe it when the RSPCA called to tell me they had him, and he’d been found just two roads away from our house! It still feels like a bit of a blur; I honestly didn’t think I’d ever see him again.”
Alfie has settled back into his home really well. While his brother, Sheldon, passed away in 2023, his friend Amber the dog was pleased to see him again. But he has had to get used to two new family members: Gus and Luna, the family’s new cats, who arrived after Alfie went missing
Mandy added: “We’re all over-the-moon to have him home. He spends most of his time curled up on my daughter, Elizabeth’s, bed. It’s like he never left!”
Alfie, 10, went to the vets for a check-up and had some mats removed from his fur but has been given a clean bill of health.
Chip & check
Since June 2024, it has been a legal requirement in England for owned cats over 20-weeks-old to be microchipped.
Microchipping is the best way to ensure that, should a cat become lost, stolen or injured, they can more easily be reunited with their owners.
Cats can become strays for a variety of reasons and sometimes owned cats are mistaken for strays. If you’re concerned a cat may be stray then you could try to find an owner by placing a paper collar on them, creating a ‘found’ poster, or posting on social media and online.
The RSPCA prioritises rescuing neglected and abused animals and responding to emergencies such as this, where an animal is in immediate danger, so it doesn’t have the resources to help healthy stray cats.
But cats are incredibly resourceful and many stray cats live great lives. There’s lots of advice for helping stray cats online.
