Cat in drainage pipe rescue drama

Pippin is recovering at home after being stuck in the pipe for hours

A Perthshire cat is recovering indoors after being stuck down a drainage pipe for about 22 hours.

Pippin, who is one-year-old, disappeared from her owners in Blairgowrie on Friday night.

The Patersons heard her meowing early on Saturday morning - inside the pipe which takes water from the hillside out into the River Ericht.

Scottish SPCA staff eventually freed Pippin using a contraption made out of a strawberry net.

The fire service had initially tried to rescue the cat but the food and sheeting they put down scared Pippin further into the pipe work, where she could not be heard at all.

It was feared that she had got stuck in a dip full of water, but her rescuers were relieved to hear her start meowing again.

When the SSPCA arrived they tried rods with hoops but that drove Pippin back again.

They then came up with the idea of borrowing the strawberry net from a neighbour.

The fire brigade and SSPCA tried to get Pippin out of the pipe

The cat's owner Alan Paterson said: "We managed to weigh it down and slide it right down into the pipe work.

"With a lot of coaxing and everything we managed to entice her, with food and her toys, to climb up the netting and we eventually managed to get her out of the pipe work."

The rescue lasted about six hours in total.

Mr Paterson and sons, Ross, 11, and Ewan, 9, were all relieved Pippin had managed to escape.

Mr Paterson said: "She was fine, just a bit wet really.

"We were lucky - the forecasted rain hadn't really come so there wasn't water pouring down the hillside and down the pipe work.

"We don't know what would've happened to her then, because I think at the other end of the pipe there's about a 40ft drop as it comes out into the river."