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Kitten falls 10 metres into arms of MFS firefighter

Leap of faith ends happily in heart-stopping moment caught on camera! MFS firefighter manages to catch falling kitten with bare hands.

RSPCA SA’s rescue officers are used to retrieving felines – intent on using up their nine lives – from precarious situations. Recently the team received one such call about a kitten stuck up a tree.

Caller An from Mawson Lakes had been driving home when she saw the kitten crossing a very busy Cross Keys Road at around 11am last Thursday.

“I just saw this bundle of fur rolling between the wheels of cars and I wasn’t really sure what it was,” An said.

Unsure if the animal had been clipped by a car and injured, An pulled to the side of the road and went looking in the direction she had seen it go. A woman waiting at a bus stop told An she had seen what she thought was a squirrel run up a nearby tree.

When An located the kitten in the tree and tried to coax it down, the terrified animal just climbed higher until he was about 10 metres up.

“I knew I wouldn’t be able to get him to come down, so I called the council and they put me through to the RSPCA,” An said.

“I found some discarded takeaway cups and put them at the bottom of the tree so that they would know which one the kitten was in, because I wasn’t able to stay with it.”

The tree that the kitten fled up is in a small reserve on the corner of Cross Keys Road and Barnstaple Road in Brahma Lodge. RSPCA volunteer rescue officer Mel was soon on the scene and immediately knew she needed to call in more help.

“We don’t have the equipment to retrieve animals that are so high, so I contacted the MFS and firefighters from the Oakden station attended with a cherry picker,” Mel said.

The cherry picker was moved into position while Mel and MFS firefighter Matt held a blanket below in case the kitten fell. As the cherry picker moved closer, the kitten panicked and started scrambling to other branches before leaping from the tree.

Matt launched himself sideways and to the amazement of everyone at the scene, managed to catch the kitten in his bare hands, breaking its fall. The heart-stopping moment was captured on a mobile phone by Amanda, an animal lover who was on her way to work and had stopped to see if she could help.

“Adrenalin was pumping for sure, it was an amazing catch,” Amanda said.

RSPCA rescue officer Mel agrees, saying she feared the worst when the kitten leapt into mid-air.

“Matt’s lightning reflexes saved the day – it was a great outcome from a tricky rescue operation.”

The male kitten is approximately eight weeks old. He does not have a microchip that would have enabled RSPCA to locate his owner and is now recovering at the Lonsdale shelter after a thorough assessment by RSPCA’s veterinary team.

Incredibly, apart from a small cut in his right front armpit and a sore leg, he does not appear to have suffered any serious injuries and will go into foster care until he’s ready to be rehomed.

RSPCA SA staff are contemplating the best name for a kitten who thinks he is a sugar glider. Top contenders so far are Buzz Lightyear, Howzat, Geronimo and Icarus.

While this lucky kitten isn’t yet available to adopt, RSPCA SA has more than 750 cats and kittens in care (about half of them in foster care), with 114 available to adopt from its Lonsdale shelter today.

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