These things happen in real life?

A few weeks ago I was leaving our house, turning away from locking the front door, when I noticed that half the street was out watching a neighbour up a ladder.

Turns out there was a cat stuck in the tree in their front garden.

Honestly, I didn’t think that actually happened in real life. I wonder what the local fire brigade would say if you called them out for that. Haven’t they got enough on their hands to deal with, what with all the fires and things? Car crashes and industrial disasters? So kudos to the neighbour with the ladder. Also for the act of climbing the swaying ladder against the slender tree, in order to rescue the scared-witless (or maybe just witless? It climbed the tree, after all) feline ferocity.