A good 911 operator has to be ready for anything - but even the most hardened operator would have been thrown for six by the emergency call one Wisconsin woman made Friday.
The woman - a resident of Greenfield, a city in Milwaukee - called to report that she was being held hostage in her own home.
But the perpetrator wasn't a home invader or an angry partner... it was her family's cat, CBS 58 reported.
The fractious feline had something of a meltdown, it seems, and rather than - for example - wrapping it up in a blanket while it calmed down, the woman decided to call for outside help.
'This is gonna sound like a strange question,' the woman told the 911 operator, understating beautifully, 'but we have a cat and it's going crazy and it's attacked my husband and we're kind of hostage in our house.'
'And we're just wondering who we should call to do something, get rid of the cat or help us...'
She signed off with a nervous chuckle, but help was indeed on the way and the cat was taken to Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission.
No one was injured.
[...]
And in July last year a man in West Yorkshire, England, called police because he wanted to press charges against his girlfriend and her cat after they ate his bacon.
'Sir, it’s not a criminal offense to let your cat eat your bacon,' the operator told him.
'And we don’t arrest cats.'
Upon report of the hostage situation, SWAT was called. The hostage negotiator tried offering many things, but the cat turned down catnip, treats, a toy mouse, and promises of snuggles. The situation was defused at the last minute, when the cat was distracted by the laser rangefinder of one of the sniper teams, moments before a breach was called.