Cat rescued after a week in the lift shaft

Not the kind of headlines that you would normally expect from barganews. After all, just how many lift shafts are there to be found in Barga to get lost in ? What is more, how many lift shafts are there in the medieval buildings in Barga Vecchia? As it turns out, when the restoration work was done on the the town hall  -- Palazzo Pancrazi -- a number of years ago, they also constructed a lift shaft that went from the ground floor up through the 500 year old palazzo. It was never completed and the shaft was subsequently walled in.

A week ago a cat managed to find a small hole into the shaft and dropped down unhurt to the bottom. It stayed there in the dark until towards the end of the week its plaintive mewing was heard in the council chambers and offices. A search of the building came up empty handed but finally as the crying became more pitiful its source was located inside the lift shaft.  Part of the wall was broken down and an energetic member of the Palazzo Pancrazi staff crawled inside to find in the beam of his torch, the female cat at the bottom of the shaft.

no images were found

After some discussions involving the staff from the  Council Technical Dept and members of the maintenance crew it was determined that the choice was to send somebody down on a rope to collect the cat or cut a hole through the wall at the lower level closest to the desperate cat.

Measurements and calculations were taken and it was decided that the second solution would be the easiest as climbing back up the rope with a scared and possibly injured cat was to be avoided if at all possible.

A task force, now expanded to include members of the Polizia Municipale- the Comune Police was sent into the offices directly next to the base of the lift shaft and a hole was cut into the wall.

An hour later after some hesitation on the part of the cat, she finally emerged blinking into the light, a good deal thinner than when she entered the shaft but never the less seemingly unhurt.