On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 16:37:59 GMT, "Leo Lichtman"
wrote:

Dropping a rope down the chimney probably would have worked.

I once had to get a cat out of the neighbor's fireplace. Still can't figure
our how it got in there--maybe tried to catch a bird, and fell in. The cat
was atop the damper, and had been there for days before we figured out where
the crying was coming from. It refused to come out, so we called animal
control. He had a cable-noose on a pole, and managed to get it around the
cat's neck, but the cat resisted, and pulling would have broken the cat's
neck. So he left. In the meantime, my cat wandered into the room--when the
cat in the fireplace saw my cat, it came down voluntarily, and went home.

So, you could say that my cat rescued the other cat.

I've told this story on some NG before but don't know if it was this
one where I rarely post. I used to have a cat that came in the house
through the chimney. The first time it near scared the daylights out
of me (and probably the cat, too). I heard a rustle, rustle, rustle
in the chimney and next thing I knew the cat streaked out of the
fireplace (didn't have glass doors) with soot flying all over the
place. I didn't have the ability to do anything about the chimney so
that became the cat's way of getting in when no one was home. After
several trips, she came through sootless as she'd swept the chimney
nice and clean. Needless to say we never closed the flue. )
Sue