Seven-week-old kitten Oliver might have used up one of his nine lives.
Earlier this month, the little furball – who is also known as Olly – was rescued by Wyndham police, SES and CFA members after getting stuck in a pipe beneath a portable classroom at the Islamic College of Melbourne in Tarneit.
Constable Joshua Pugh said staff at the school called police after they heard the kitten meowing from below the portable.
Constable Pugh said he and another officer took it in turns to try to catch the kitten.
“When we put our hand down the pipe, he kept running away – he didn’t know that we were trying to help,” he said.
A police sergeant brought some tuna and Twisties to the scene, which they lowered into the pipe using a scarf, but not even food could tempt the kitten out.
Constable Pugh said CFA members attended and cut some of the pipe away, followed by an SES crew, who dug from the entry point of the pipe and blocked both ends, allowing the kitten to be caught.
Afterwards, the college principal took the kitten to the University of Melbourne’s U-Vet Werribee Animal Hospital.
Small animal medicine veterinary nurse Jennifer Peart said the clinic’s staff named the tiny kitten Oliver. Ms Peart said her aunt’s cat had recently died, so she gave Oliver to her aunt, who calls him Olly.
Ms Peart said her aunt “absolutely adores Olly” who is now going “really well”.
