Staff at a California school heard sounds coming from the wall. Here’s what they discovered

Meows coming from inside the walls of Grace M. Davis High School led to the discovery and rescue of a trapped cat last week, Modesto City Schools confirmed.

Staff at Davis High were initially alarmed when they heard noises coming from inside the walls near the school’s library, but couldn’t make out what they were. However, they reported the sounds to the maintenance staff. Custodians checked the wall it was believed the sounds were coming from, but could not see or hear anything.

The next day, a custodian working on the roof of the school saw paw prints near a vent and deduced that the sounds reported earlier must’ve been that of a distressed cat. Shining a flashlight down the vent, the custodian spotted a trapped furry four-legged feline.

Below, maintenance crews opened a portion of the wall in an effort to launch a rescue mission. Visuals were established on the whiskered creature, but it was just out of reach. They determined the cat accidentally fell through the vent and was trapped.

The city of Modesto’s Animal Control department was called in for backup. Chris Haubrich, an animal control supervisor for the city, was not scheduled to work that day but decided to see if he could help, according to Sharon Bear, spokesperson for the Modesto Police Department.

Haubrich was able to pull the cat out and rescue it from its confined predicament.

“I am told everyone was really relieved,” said Sharokina Shams, spokesperson for Modesto City Schools. “When that animal was rescued, there was a sense of urgency. There was a feeling of ‘let’s get this cat out of here.’”

The cat was then handed to a custodian, but what happened to it after could not be confirmed by officials. Bear said the cat was not taken into custody by animal control.

Officials could also not confirm if the incident counted as one of the feline’s nine lives, per legend.