Good to see our smart breed went to the top floor of the house to avoid the flood!
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A cat who balanced on top of a pile of furniture in a submerged room for 12 hours after his owner had been airlifted to safety was one of 34 animals “lucky to survive” the Boscastle floods, the RSPCA said today.
The animal welfare organisation said they thought the young cat named Eric “would have had no chance” after water and mud reached the ceiling of the ground-floor flat he was in.
Although his owner, Steve Lancaster, has been airlifted to safety from the property in the north Cornwall village on Monday, the black and white cat managed to find an air pocket which enabled him to breathe until the RSPCA and fire brigade arrived the next day.
RSPCA Chief Inspector Les Sutton, who co-ordinated the operation said: “The water had drained away, but Claire
Ford, who was the first member of the RSPCA team to arrive in the village] could see from the marks on the ceiling and walls that the flat had been totally submerged.
“We thought the cat would have had no chance.
“She could not believe her eyes when we saw the exhausted cat, precariously balanced on the edge of a piece of furniture, piled of top of other furniture.
“He must have found an air pocket and is incredibly lucky to survive.
A spokeswoman for the RSPCA added: “He was obviously afraid to move, he had probably been there for about 12 hours.”
The RSPCA team of four who spent seven hours searching for trapped animals on Tuesday, also used a ladder to rescue two “petrified” dogs – an elderly collie and a Yorkshire terrier – who were hiding under a table on the top floor of a property.
Two hamsters and a rabbit who were rescued from the swamped Manor House Pub in the village only survived because they were left on high ground, rescuers said.
And a pet rat and a chinchilla has a lucky escape after being stranded on the top floors of two separate properties where water has reached three quarters of the way up the stairs and the top of the stairs respectively.
In the largest single rescue, four bantam chickens, one cockatiel, five canaries and 11 finches were taken to safety from two aviaries which were next to a collapsed wall.
A parakeet, a goldfish, a further two dogs and a cat were also taken to safety in the operation.
Mr Sutton added: “This was a valiant group effort between all the emergency services, all of whom did an amazing job in very difficult circumstances.
“We are very grateful to all the assistance that we had from the other agencies and also for the support of the people of Boscastle who kept us going.”
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