A TREE surgeon who was called to rescue a cat ended up having to get rescued by the fire brigade after getting stuck on a roof.
Basim Hashmi called the tree surgeon to his home in Bridge of Earn, Perthshire, on Sunday when his beloved moggy Toby got stuck on top of their house.
The 32-year-old was shocked however when the arborist also became stuck on the steep roof of the building after his previous knee injury immobilised him.
The tree surgeon called on courier driver Basim to help him but after struggling to get him off the roof, a neighbour called the fire brigade.
Several fire fighters from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service arrived shortly afterwards and rescued the helpless workman using a ladder.
However, the ladder was not long enough to rescue two-year-old ragdoll Toby from the peak of the building so the fire service had to call for back up.
The feline friend was finally retrieved safely after the second fire engine used a cherry picker to reach him.
Basim posted the video to TikTok on Tuesday, writing: “We hired a tree surgeon to rescue our cat but he got himself stuck on the roof with the cat.
“The fire brigade arrived for rescue.”
The video has gained over 186,000 views and thousands of likes from social media users.
Many viewers poked fun at the tree surgeon managing to get stuck in the first place.
One viewer said: “He should stick to trees!”
Another wrote: “Tree surgeon from Wish.”
A third added: “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly…”
A fourth commented: “Climbing a roof and not a tree.”
While one baffled person questioned: “How does a tree surgeon get stuck?”
Speaking today, Basim said: “Our cat likes chasing birds and he managed to run up onto the roof through our window and he got stuck.
“He was right at the edge but I think he got scared.
“I eventually got in touch with a tree surgeon who came around to help us.
“He tied himself to a bannister inside the house and climbed out onto the window and informed us that he hurt his knee a few days before and that he couldn’t get up or down.
“It was a bit of a conundrum.
“I think a neighbour called the fire brigade to help him because they came out of nowhere.
“They got a big ladder and got him down but didn’t have a long enough ladder to get Toby down.
“They phoned another engine that had a cherry picker and they came about 20-minutes later and managed to get him down.
“We were quite shocked, we just wanted our cat back, we didn’t want him to be scared.
“It was quite emotional, it was kind of like a movie where you have a climax and then a happy ending at the end.”
Speaking today a Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said: “We were alerted at 1.48pm on Sunday, May 15 to reports of a person in difficulty at Elm Court, Bridge of Earn.
“Operations Control mobilised one fire appliance and one height vehicle and firefighters assisted a man and one cat from the roof of a three-storey building.”
