British Cat Saves Lamb from Drowning

by Sherry Morse

A lamb who escaped recently from his pasture in England was saved from drowning in a swimming pool by an alert cat.

Puss Puss, a black and white cat, discovered the lamb’s predicament and frantically meowed, running back and forth between the pool and the garden where her owners were working, to alert them to his plight.

Puss Puss’s owners, gardeners Adrian Bunton and Karen Lewis, had taken her along with them to work at the garden of Cotswold District Council chairman Tim Royle in Icomb, Cheltenham.

Jill Royle said, "She was in a very, very agitated state, meowing and calling and crying and being an utter pest and dashing back and forward between them and the pool."

"They found the lamb in the swimming pool," Royle said. "They got it out and it was OK."

When Bunton and Lewis found the lamb he was under the pool cover and his head was entangled in the pool cover straps, which actually were keeping him from drowning.

Bunton jumped into the pool to rescue the lamb while Lewis went to get help.

Puss Puss is "a real little superstar," said Lewis. The actions of the quick-thinking feline are all the more remarkable because she is disabled.

"As a kitten she had an accident and had to have her tail amputated, " Lewis explained. "She hasn’t grown properly, has arthritis and can’t curl up, jump or climb like other normal cats."

Mrs. Royle wrote about the incident in the village newsletter and told readers, "If you see a little black cat with no tail walking in Icomb, it will be gallant Puss Puss, who deserves a medal."

Neither Royle nor Puss Puss’s owners knew how the Jacob lamb had escaped from the field next to the house.

© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.