19. A CHUBBY RAT
It was a Sunday afternoon when Berufstierrettung Rhein Neckar, an animal rescue group in Germany, received a rather strange call. It appeared that a family of four had spotted a poor animal stuck in a hole of a sewage drain cover and decided to call the animal rescuers. But what was this poor animal? Surely not what you’ expect… Click next to see for yourself!
To the rescuer’s surprise, the animal that was trapped was a nothing more than a very chubby, frightened rat. The rescuers couldn’t believe that anyone would care for the poor rat as the majority of their incidents consist of dogs and cats. But how do you rescue a rat? What happens next is amazing.
18. TRAPPED BECAUSE OF ITS WEIGHT
It was obvious at this point that the poor rat was trapped in the sewage cover for no other reason than that he was overweight. It appeared that the rat had put up some pounds and its weight was extreme for its size. The rat tried to squeeze itself out of the sewer but its actions were futile… How long did it spend trapped though?
17. DESPERATE
The rat’s expression could explain just how desperate the poor rodent was… Given that rats aren’t always regarded as cute or friendly, no one that saw the little rat seemed to care for the it. It was obvious by his looks that it was exhausted, frightened and desperate… Thankfully something was about to happen.
16. HE WAS HEALTHY!
Before attempting the rescue, the members of the animal rescue group evaluated the rat’s condition. If the rat was injured they would have to wait for more specialized examinations to be made on the spot that would affect the rescuing procedure. Thankfully the little rodent’s health was perfect except for… that it was stuck! But there was a big problem…
“He was in a really good condition,” Andreas Steinbach, spokesperson for Berufstierrettung Rhein Necka, said.
15. THE FIRST ATTEMPT FAILED
The rescuers’ first attempt unfortunately failed as they discovered that the poor rat was more tightly trapped than they’ve expected… They just couldn’t get him out of there without injuring him with their routine equipment that they had on the spot. There was need for something more drastic!
14. SPECIALIZED
After a call in the rescue team’s headquarters the team came to realize that they weren’t capable to free the rat from its trap with the equipment they owned… They started to feel desperate themselves when one of the rescuers proposed an idea…
13. FIRE DEPARTMENT
It was obvious! If some people have the duty to free trapped living animals and people from difficult situations, these are the firefighters! The team realized that they were their last hope so they decided to give them a call as their last resort.
“We weren’t able to rescue the rat alone,” Steinbach said. “So we called the volunteer firefighters.”
12. THEY RESPONDED IMMEDIATELY
To everyone’s good luck the volunteer firefighters seemed to take this quite seriously and arrived at the spot after half an hour. The team was afraid that there would be more important incidents for the firefighters to respond but thankfully this Sunday afternoon was quite peaceful.
11. A DIFFERENT APPROACH
The firefighters, being experts in this kind of procedures, decided to take a different approach when they attempted to free the little rat. Instead of trying to cut the sewer cover or pull the rat from its position, they decided to think out of the box. See what they did!
10. REMOVED THE COVER
The firefighters decided to pull out the sewage cover and try to free the rat by pulling him back out from the bottom. This way, they would reverse the moves that the trapped rat made in the first place and it was by far the most safe and easy way. Thankfully they had brought with them the appropriate equipment for this task! See what happens next!
9. TEAMWORK
It was a sweet act of teamwork. After all it was quite moving to see a whole team of firefighters trying to free a poor little rat that was trapped when trying to get out of the sewers. Without careful teamwork and coordination, the fragile little rat would be severely injured.
8. FINALLY FREE
After a couple of light pushes from the firefighters, the little rodent was finally free! Thankfully the plan of the firefighter’s had worked perfectly and the rat after sniffing the firefighters-as a “thank you” gesture- and of course… stretching, disappeared into the sewers… its home.
7. NEED FOR A DIET
The rat’s gesture to sniff the firefighters as well as stay a little bit still while watching them, was its own way to say a big “thank you” to them. But there is more… It was also a look that implied “Yes, I need to stick with my new year’s resolution to lose these pounds.”
“He made a brief look back at us, as if to say, ‘Thank you — and yes, I know I need to go on a diet,'” Steinbach said.
6. THERE WAS MORE
The -now free- little rodent, wasn’t the only one that was thankful that day. The whole operation lasted at least a couple of hours and during the whole rescue the family that had placed the call never leaved the spot. They remained there until the moment that the little rat was freed. Of course they had to thank the rescuers themselves.
5. GREETED BY THE CHILDREN
Everyone that was there to help the rat was greeted and hugged by the two children of the family that spotted the trapped rat. It was them who saw the rat and persuaded their parents to make a call to the rescuers.
4. KIND SOULS
These children weren’t preoccupied about the nature of rats and for them it was obvious that someone had to intervene. Who knows how many people spotted the rat but neglected it before these two kind souls saw it.
3. A SPECIAL GIFT
During the rescue, the two children were quite stressed so their parents decided to attract their attention away from the rescue by making them prepare a gift for the rescuers. As it seems… it worked!
2. A DRAWING
The two children made a drawing of the trapped rat and handed it to Andreas Steinbach, spokesperson for Berufstierrettung Rhein Neck, as a gift for their services. It was a heartwarming moment!
1. NO DISTINCTIONS
“We make no difference about what kind of animal needs help. We are in animal rescue, not in pest control,” Steinbach said, adding that reaction to the rescue has been mixed, though mostly encouraging. “We got some bad messages from people saying that rats are pests, but we got many more good messages and thanks from a lot of people.”