A cat who was missing for nearly a month is back home in Castlegar, B.C., after suddenly turning up in a neighbour’s chimney shaft.
Gordon Walker says his neighbour texted him Wednesday to tell him that Jolene, Walker’s cat who went missing on Nov. 23, was stuck in their chimney.
He says the last time he saw his cat she was on his neighbour’s roof, but there’s no telling if that’s when Jolene fell in.
“They let me cut into their wall to get her out,” Walker told CTV News in an email.
The fire department was called, and crews tried for 1.5 hours to get Jolene to come up the chimney, but eventually had to leave to respond to a different call.
“They were also frozen as it was -16 C yesterday and windy,” said Walker, who also tried with his neighbour to coax Jolene up to the roof.
Finally, he says his neighbour told him “we have to get her out now,” and Walker went to rent a drill powerful enough to get through eight inches of the concrete block chimney.
“When we finally got a hole through, loud noise I think scared her,” Walker said. “About a half hour to one hour later she started moving, and then popped her head out the hole. Like Santa!”
Jolene—who arrived a few days earlier than St. Nick—is doing just fine, according to Walker.
