One fur the books: Local police chief, fire department member rescue cat trapped in cistern

One local resident and her family are praising the new Aplington Police Chief and a member of the Parkersburg Fire Department for their heroic rescue efforts after they freed the family’s cat, which had fallen into a cistern and become trapped there for some time.

It was New Years Eve day when Aplington resident Laura Arms and her husband Craig returned home from a family Christmas in Colorado, and found their pet cat Sunbeam wasn’t anywhere to be seen. After doing some searching, they heard a faint meowing coming from the basement. Following the noise, Laura came to realize her cat had fallen into the old cistern in the basement, and couldn’t jump back out over the tall ledge.

“I tried every possible way to get her out, but the cistern goes all the way up to the floor joists and it’s probably six or seven feet to the bottom, solid concrete the whole way, with just a tiny ledge up top,” Laura said.

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