Upon arrival the customer informed him that the previous day their cat had chased a jackdaw down one of the neighbours’ seven chimneys!
The local Fire & Rescue service had attended, and Jacob was a bit taken aback to find that after ruling out the only live chimney, they’d broken into six redundant bricked up chimney breasts. Finding no cat, they’d admitted defeat and left.
It looked like this could be a long job and as there were other customers to visit that morning, Jacob decided to carry on to the other jobs and return later. The rest of his sweeps done, he returned as promised where he was joined by another Avondale stalwart, Jake Patrick.
Jacob and Jake embarked on a more thorough investigation of chimney breasts and pots, accessing the roof and checking out all the possibilities. Seven pots and only six identifiable redundant chimney breasts, each now with a hole in it. Further enquiries of the householder revealed a cellar and Jacob suggested there had once been a fireplace here but that it and the chimney breast above it had been removed up to the level of the first-floor ceiling. The householder was convinced there had never been a fireplace in the cellar and in any event, he was understandably objecting to any more holes in his walls. Proceeding up to the first floor Jacob pointed out where the breast would have once been and the lintel that now supported the remaining stack above. He persuaded the owner to allow one more hole and upon removing a single brick, was greeted with two shining eyes. One more brick and Luna was free. A five-hour marathon testing multiple sweeping skills and knowledge had reunited an unharmed cat with her grateful owner.
Luna’s owner had agreed to undertake to pay for the damages caused during the search, which by now must have amounted to a very expensive rescue.
Jacob was philosophical about it all and said: ‘It was nice to have Luna back with her owner, I’m more of a dog person really’.
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