Rescue bid for cat stuck up Tredegar tree in fourth day
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Leanne Skinner
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Cookie the cat is resisting attempts to coax her down
An operation to rescue a cat which is stuck up a tree has entered its fourth day, with help from a scaffolding company. The cat was spotted up a tree in Tredegar, Blaenau Gwent, on Saturday, and the fire service tried to get it down on Sunday without success.Crews appealed for help and a local firm has built a structure around the tree to try to get the cat down.However, the animal has so far resisted all attempts to lure it out with food.The cat has provisionally been identified as Cookie, a female that went missing from home.Company director Paul Ratledge said his firm had got involved after being contacted by South Wales Fire and Rescue Service.
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AP Scaffolding
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Scaffolders work to try to get the cat out of the tree
He told BBC Wales: “We had a phone call from the local fire service.”They’d tried with cherry pickers, they’d had a tree surgeon but they couldn’t get it.”The firm agreed to help and constructed scaffolding around the tree, near the Rhyd Hall pub on The Rhyd.But despite their best efforts to tempt it out of hiding, Cookie is proving hard to help.
Speaking on Tuesday morning, Mr Ratledge said: “We’ve been there this morning, taking food to it.”We’ve set up scaffolding boards on angles now so the cat will be able to get down by itself.”We got right by it but it went up higher again. It was crying a bit.”He hopes the newly-placed boards will allow the shy creature to come down alone.”We’ll go to do our day’s work and then go back to it,” he said.Leanne Skinner, who has been coordinating efforts to try to get Cookie down, said on Facebook the scaffolding team had been “amazing”.She said: “Fingers crossed this will be the day! There really is nothing else we can do after the RSPCA, fire service, two cherry pickers and scaffolding. Silly cat!”Ms Skinner said Cookie had managed to get to the top tier of the scaffolding but “couldn’t work her way down”.
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