Rescue of cats shows capital’s true spirit

The compassionate spirit of the people of Dhaka has been exemplified once again through the action of local residents and personnel from the Fire Service and Civil Defence, who teamed up to save two cats trapped on the cornice of a window of a multi-storied building in Mohammadpur.

Liton Haiderbdnews24.com
Published : 9 Jan 2016, 05:45 PM
Updated : 9 Jan 2016, 07:07 PM

They had been trapped on the cornice on the second floor of the five-storied building on Shahjahan Road for the past seven days.

Unable to bear their poignant and incessant meowing, Sayed Fatiur Rahman, 23, a resident of the building, contacted the Fire Service on Saturday to have them rescued.

Fatiur Rahman, an employee of a diagnostic centre in Dhanmondi, told bdnews24.com, “I could hear them crying whenever I went to the kitchen, and their cries became more pathetic at night. When I asked about it, I learnt that they were trapped outside a window of my flat."

“At first I thought they would get down on their own.”

But when they could not get down even after two more days, he started to feed the cats from his neighbour’s flat on the third floor. He even tried to rescue them with a stick.

“I gave them food through the window of my neighbour’s flat for two days and also tried to rescue them,” Fatiur said.

When his efforts failed, he discussed the plight of the cats with some of his colleagues at work on Friday. 

On their advice, he decided to inform the Fire Service and Civil Defence. He went to the office of the Mohammadpur Fire Service and Civil Defence on Saturday morning and met Station Officer Sajib Sarkar.

On Fatiur’s request, Sarkar agreed to rescue the cats.

“Fatiur’s face clearly revealed how badly he was affected by the plight of the cats. It appeared he was suffering from guilt because he could not rescue them," Sarkar said.

Sajib Sarkar later reached the building at about 12.30 pm with a seven-member team.

Curious onlookers started to gather around the building when they saw the Fire Service personnel and their vehicle. The even gathered on vantage positions on the roofs of nearby buildings to witness the unprecedented rescue.

Sajib Sarkar said no one in the building could open the locked door that led to the roof, so they were forced to break it open.

To the cheers of onlookers, a member of the rescue team climbed down to the sunshade of the window on the second floor using a rope.

But as soon as he reached the sunshade, one of the trapped cats jumped onto an adjacent sunshade in fright, and was followed quickly after by the other cat as well. One of the cats then jumped onto an open window on the third floor, hung there precariously for a moment, and climbed in safely, much to the delight of the onlookers.

When the man tried to rescue the other cat, it jumped onto the tin roof of an adjacent house and fled.

The onlookers burst into applause when the two cats escaped unhurt after two hours of a breathtaking rescue effort.