Cat up a drain pipe! Moment mischievous moggy gets stuck when she tries to raid a hedgehog feeder
- Cat gets stuck in pipe after trying to steal food from a hedgehog feeding station
- Poe, 13, squeezed into plastic tube in neighbour’s garden in Eton Wick, Berkshire
- Helen Branscombe-Davies built contraption to give animals a safe place to feed
- CCTV footage captured the black and white moggy trying to wriggle out of tube
This is the comic moment a hungry cat got caught in a drain pipe when she tried to raid a hedgehog feeding station.
The curious cat, named Poe, 13, squeezed into the five-inch wide tube in her neighbour’s garden in Eton Wick, Berkshire to reach the kitten kibble inside the crate.
But when she tried to back out of the station, the black and white moggy dislodged the plastic pipe which then got stuck around her midriff.
A CCTV camera captured the moment Poe unsuccessfully tried to wriggle out of the tube before running off into the night.
The curious cat, called Poe, 13, squeezed into the five-inch wide tube in her neighbour’s garden in Eton Wick, Berkshire to reach for tasty kitten kibble inside the box
But as she tried to back out of the station, the black and white moggy dislodged the plastic pipe which then got stuck around her midriff
A CCTV camera captured the moment Poe unsuccessfully tried to wriggle out of the tube before running off into the night
Homeowner Helen Branscombe-Davies had built the special contraption to make sure local hedgehogs had a safe place to feed.
But when she realised that cats, foxes, and rats had also been using it the 56-year-old attached the plastic pipe with 90 degree bends in to put them off.
She woke one morning to find part of the pipe missing and checked her camera footage to see what had happened.
She then posted a plea on a local Whatsapp group asking to see if the cat was ok and for the pipe back.
It was spotted by Poe’s owner, Dawn Kane, and she was shocked to discover what her pet had been getting up to.
The piece of pipe was later found abandoned in another neighbour’s garden after Poe had seemingly shrugged it off.
Helen, 56, from Eton Wick, Berks, said: ‘Hedgehog numbers have suffered a severe decline in the UK in recent years and people are encouraged to do everything they can to help the species recover.
‘Feeding stations help keep the food away from other creatures which don’t need it.
Homeowner Helen Branscombe-Davies had built the special contraption to make sure local hedgehogs had a safe place to feed
‘I use a plastic storage container and recently introduced entrance pipes with 90 degree bends which are no problem for hedgehogs but make things more difficult for cats.
‘Last summer I had about eight hedgehogs coming to feed every night but this time of the year most are hibernating.
‘I only saw the footage the following morning. When I went to remove the SD card from the camera I could see that the pipe was missing and when checking the video footage I could then see what had happened.
‘I posted the video on our local residents WhatsApp group.
‘Dawn recognised her cat and said she had come home absolutely fine with no pipe on her. The neighbour whose garden is directly between my garden and Dawn’s then responded that he had found the pipe in his garden.’
It was spotted by Poe’s owner, Dawn Kane, and she was shocked to discover what her pet had been getting up to
Dawn, a company director for a mobile cleaning company, said: ‘I came downstairs to find her eating her food like nothing had happened.
‘Then I read Helen’s message and realised it was my cat in the footage. I couldn’t believe it.
‘I have no idea how she got out of that pipe. I can only imagine she was clever enough to lodge it onto something like a bush then back out of it.
‘She is always up to something, she’s a mischievous cat. She is 13 but she still thinks she is a kitten. There’s a lot of apologising which goes on around Poe.’