Cat rescued
after being trapped in letterbox in Bukit Batok
SINGAPORE: A SingPost officer had to be called in on Friday (Sep
8) to rescue a cat which was stuck inside a letterbox at a housing
board block at Bukit Batok West Avenue 8.
A resident, Ms Nurhayati Hashim, was on her way home in the
afternoon when she was startled by sounds of a cat mewing from
inside a letterbox. Her videos of the incident have since gone
viral on Facebook, with about 4,000 shares and more than 600
comments as of Saturday afternoon.
The videos show a black cat sticking its paws out of the slat,
struggling to get out of the letterbox. Passers-by are heard trying
to calm it down.
"I panicked at first but did not want to leave because I knew a cat
was trapped in there," Ms Nurhayati told Channel NewsAsia.
According to her, she contacted the Bukit Batok Town Council but
was told to contact SingPost instead. SingPost later told her call
to the Housing Development Board (HDB), which redirected her to the
town council.
Ms Nurhayati decided to go up to the unit stated on the letterbox,
but said that the woman in the flat at that time did not understand
English. The woman contacted her daughter-in-law who told Ms
Nurhayati that the flat's tenant was overseas and had taken the
letterbox key with him.
Ms Nurhayati said went down again to the letterbox and called the
police who eventually contacted SingPost. She added that an officer
from the postal service arrived at the scene in about 30 minutes
and opened the column of mailboxes to free to cat.
The entire process - from the time the cat was discovered to the
rescue - took about an hour, according to Ms Nurhayati.
The animal was not injured and some residents offered it some wet
food and water before letting it go.
Replying to Channel NewsAsia's queries, a SingPost spokesperson
said its inspector of post "responded immediately" after being
alerted of the incident.
"We acted immediately with concerns about animal welfare as well,"
said the spokesperson, adding that this is the first incident
involving an animal trapped in a letterbox.
Source: CNA/aa