A family's three-year-old pet has become the first victim of new fire service health and safety rules which mean they can no longer rescue cats from trees.
For as long as anyone can remember it has been one of the fire brigade's less dramatic tasks to rescue stranded moggies.
Once poor Lily, a frightened white cat from Carlisle, might have been plucked to safety in minutes - but not any more.
The fire brigade arrived, carried out a risk assessment and drove away again.
It mean Lily was trapped 40ft up a Sycamore tree close to the M6 motorway for nearly five days.
A representative from the Cumbria fire service completed a risk assessment, but said that a rescue attempt would place officers at risk. Tony Stoddart, Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service's area manager for Carlisle and Eden, said: "Firefighters from the UK have been paralysed trying to rescue cats.
"We don't find many skeletons of cats up trees, so the risks far outweighed the benefits in this case."
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