SSPCA Animal Rescue Officer with Cleo the cat – credit: Scottish SPCA

Rescuers in Scotland saved an exhausted cat who was trapped underground during a storm for 5 days.

The SPCA was called to the site of a Dundee apartment building where the cries of 15-year-old Cleo the Bengal cat had gotten the attention of residents.

Cleo became trapped when she squeezed through a tiny hole to escape the chaos of Atlantic Storm Eowyn which recently battered the UK with winds and rain the likes of which haven’t been seen for 26 years.

The UK Meteorological Office described Eowyn as a ‘sting jet,’ a small area of very intense winds that forms in powerful weather systems for a relatively short period of time. Tens of thousands were left without power, shops closed, and transport networks ground to a halt.

In the aftermath, the SPCA officers who had been trying to help the cat were quickly running out of options.

“After several attempts to lure Cleo out with food, planks of wood, and rope, we quickly realized she didn’t have enough energy to climb out on her own,” said Animal Rescue Officer Stephanie Smillie. “That’s when the incredible Scottish Fire and Rescue team stepped in.”

“After carefully tearing up some floorboards, they discovered a tiny trap door leading into the foundations from the building’s kitchen. With their help, we were finally able to reach Cleo and free her.”

Trying in vain to help Cleo escape – credit: Scottish SPCA

“She was exhausted, but after lots of cuddles, a good meal, and a big drink of water, she was doing much better,” Smillie added.

A small crisis arose when Cleo’s microchip revealed that she belonged to a family in England, but quickly abated when a local with ownership papers who had been looking for Cleo for days rushed to the office to retrieve her.

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“Cleo had been missing for four weeks and with the weather being so cold, I feared for the worst,” Cleo’s owner Arlene Connor told the Scottish Daily Express. “We had posted missing appeals for Cleo on social media and were overjoyed to receive the phone call that she had been found.”

Connor lived just 4 blocks from the building where Cleo was trapped.

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