Yee-claw! Firefighters Rescue Cat With Lasso

We’ve heard of lassoing cows, sheep, pigs, and goats, but lassoing a cat? That’s what happened recently in Mansfield, Ohio. And no, this wasn’t a demonstration during the local rodeo. 

Cats are notorious for getting themselves into all sorts of tight spaces - but sometimes they need a little help getting out.  The Mansfield Fire Department was called out to assess a cat trapped at the bottom of an old cistern. “There was no way he was getting out of there on his own,” said Fire Captain Joe Boebel.

A nearby resident heard the cat and saw that it had fallen through the thin covering at the 16-inch wide top of the cistern.

“It appeared the cat had been down there a few days by the way it was acting,” said Boebel. “It was down at the bottom, 10-12 feet. There was no water in [the cistern], but there was mud,” he continued. The crew tried lowering a ladder into the cramped space in hopes the frightened (and likely exhausted) cat would climb out on his own. 

When it was apparent the cat wouldn’t climb, firefighter Zach Smith grabbed a rope and fashioned a lasso. Lowering the loop into the cistern, where the cat kept running into view, it took about 30 painstaking minutes to lasso the cat finally. 

So, the crew fashioned a lasso from a rope and were able to carefully capture the cat and bring it back to the surface. “Once we got it out, it didn’t want to have anything to do with us,” said Boebel, laughing.

With four paws back on dry land, the cat quickly exited the area and was seen running off with another cat. Hopefully, the property owner can locate the cat and adequately care for him and his companion.

Related: Cat rescued from the 7th story of a bomed-out building in the Ukraine.