Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Firefighters rescue curious kitten trapped in wall after six hours in new home

The fluffy black adventurer has been named Tubs after his six-hour bathroom ordeal.

Tom Wilkinson
Tuesday 29 March 2022 12:08 BST
Tubs the kitten had to be rescued by firefighters (Danielle Douglas/PA)
Tubs the kitten had to be rescued by firefighters (Danielle Douglas/PA)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

An animal lover had to call the fire brigade to rescue her kitten after he got trapped in her bathroom just six hours after she got him.

Carer Danielle Douglas, 22, was still preparing her home for the eight-week-old black cat when he vanished.

She said: “One minute I was watching him curled up asleep on the floor, the next moment he’d disappeared in to thin air.”

Danielle searched her flat in North Shields, North Tyneside, leaving treats and catnip to entice the kitten out.

Only when she started to play sounds of a mother cat purring did the adventurous explorer responded from behind her bathroom tiles.

The little kitten had managed to crawl through a gap between the ceramic tiling and the toilet piping before going on a journey into the hollow wall.

Danielle said: “The resulting meowing was coming from behind the bathroom wall.

“I was beside myself with worry as I thought that the kitten would be petrified as he was just getting used to his new surroundings.”

She spent an hour trying to coax him back out in the early hours of Friday before she called the fire brigade for help.

Firefighters located the kitten from behind some plasterboard after removing some tiles and the bath panelling.

Danielle has now named him Tubs, after his bathroom adventures.

Station manager Martin Farrow, of Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Throughout the working week our firefighters get dispatched to a variety of different jobs in the community.

“There’s never one day that is ever the same.

“This rescue of Tubs the kitten is a perfect example of how our crews use their training and judgment to assess the situation and resolve the matter, with this particular incident having a happy ending.

“It was lovely to see photographs of Tubs and Danielle peacefully reunited.”

Danielle added: “The firefighters were really gentle with Tubs and made sure that we were both OK before they left.

“They even did a safe-and-well check on my smoke alarms on their way out.”

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in