Cat rescued from 60ft-high ledge in Kent reunited with owner
A 'curious cat' rescued from a 60ft-high ledge at Ramsgate Tunnel has been reunited with his owner in Kent.
Jinks had managed to get himself into a 'perilous predicament' on Saturday 23rd October, when he got himself stuck on a small ledge at the entrance to the tunnel in Marina Esplanade.
The rescue involved Police, fire crews and the RSPCA to successfully retrieve Jinks from the ledge - in what has been described as a "large rescue mission".
It started when the RSPCA received a call about the stricken ginger puss and they sent out Inspector Clive Hopwood.
Clive realised that he would not be able to rescue the cat alone and then called Kent Fire and Rescue Service.
Four vehicles including a rope rescue unit, heigh vehicle and technical rescue unit were sent to help along with Kent Police.
A team then abseiled down to rescue the cat, who is believed to have fallen from higher ground and landed on the ledge.
Kent Fire & Rescue Service said:
“Crews were alerted to the cat by the RSPCA - who couldn't reach the cat due it being 18 metres high on the ledge. KFRS will always respond to rescue an animal where there is a risk to the life of people involved. The height vehicle was sent to the scene along with the fire service Line Rescue team. The team abseiled down the ledge to rescue the cat, which was then handed to the RSPCA.”
Clive added: “The specialist team abseiled down to reach the poor, frightened cat and I went up in the aerial platform with a team so that, once they had hold of him safely, they could pass him to me to get down to safety.
“I checked him and, thankfully, he hadn’t been injured during his ordeal. I scanned him and, although he was microchipped, unfortunately his details weren’t registered so we took him into our care and started looking for his owner.
“We’d like to say a big thank you to the police and the amazing fire crews for helping with this dramatic rescue.”
Luckily, after just a few hours, his owner spotted the found poster and got in touch with the RSPCA.
Two-year-old rescue cat Jinks had been missing from home for more than two weeks and his owner - Kim Abraham, from Ramsgate - was growing increasingly concerned.
Kim said: “We had a lot of sleepless nights, we were so worried about him,” Kim said. “We’re so relieved to have him back; it’s been fantastic. He’s very sleepy and quite underweight. He’s ravenous so we’re trying to feed him back up again slowly. Goodness knows what he’d been up to all that time!”
Jinks is now home with Kim and her husband, their three rescue dogs and their two other cats, 13-year-old Ronnie and new addition, rescue kitten Fezziwig.
“He’s such a lovely, affectionate cat,” Kim added. “He’s very playful and isn’t frightened of anything so I’m not surprised he ended up getting into trouble! It’s so lovely to have him home. We’re going to take him to the vets to make sure he’s okay and we’re going to have him re-microchipped as we can’t understand why his chip didn’t bring him home to us.”