Felix the Cat rests under the tree after Christmas Eve chimney rescue

Cat rests after Christmas Eve chimney rescue

A copy cat saw what Santa was up to and would’ve used up one of his nine lives this Christmas if it wasn’t for a selfless neighbor and an AirTag.

IRVING, Texas - A copy cat saw what Santa was up to and would’ve used up one of his nine lives this Christmas if it wasn’t for a selfless neighbor and an AirTag.

Felix the cat goes missing

What we know:

There are some stories that have a moment where you think, ‘Wait, that can’t be right.’ For Alex and Kayla, that moment started when their cat, Felix, didn’t come home.

"When we lost him, it was like, a piece of me was gone," said Kayla. "I turned to Alex, and I was like, something's really wrong."

Felix always comes home. Always. But this time he vanished for three days. They searched backyards, alleys, anywhere a cat could hide.

Finding the missing cat

Local perspective:

Until Alex noticed something strange.

Felix had an AirTag on his collar and his location was inside his neighbor’s house, and it hadn’t moved for days.

"Both Kayla and I woke up that morning, Wednesday morning, you know, from the dream where we found Felix," said Alex. "I'm getting chills on my spine thinking about it just now. But that's, that's when I knew, you know, I had to, I had to do something. I had to do something drastic, yeah, and I got up on that guy's roof."

Nobody was home, so he climbed up, and that’s when he heard it.

"And honestly, I just started praying, and I was asking the Lord if it was his will, that this would be a Christmas Eve miracle, if it was his will," said Kayla.

"And for the first time in three days, you know, I heard his voice, and that confirmed, you know, he was indeed stuck somewhere down this chimney," said Alex.

Felix wasn’t lost. He was stuck, but therein lies the next hurdle. Their neighbors were on vacation in Florida.

Cat does best Santa impression in the chimney

What they're saying:

"Whenever the fire department came out, of course, we're not the homeowners, so they couldn't do anything," said Alex.

So, they made a call they never thought they’d have to make to a neighbor they’d met asking if they could take a sledgehammer to their house to save their cat.

"By the grace of God, he said, ‘Go ahead and cut into my chimney,’" said Alex. "That's when I knew that we had some sort of angel on our site there. Robert was some sort of, you know, angel."

Cat celebrates Christmas!

Dig deeper:

That ‘yes’ changed everything. Firefighters got to work taking a sledgehammer to the side of the house, until finally he was free.

"It truly was a Christmas Eve miracle that we did find him again. So, it's, you know, it's, it's really kind of raw and pretty, almost shocking, you know, what we had to go through to get him," said Alex.

Not a single scratch, just thirsty and very tired, and a house with a few extra holes. Along with a curious cat choosing to stay closer to home.

"Yeah, he's a little tongue-tied right now. I think he's still a little, you know, shaken up from the incident, and so, you know, he's asked me to speak on his behalf. But, yeah, he is, you know, he's extremely resilient, you know, very loyal cat," said Alex.

"He was asleep under the Christian's Christmas tree this morning when I woke up. So, yeah, He didn't venture far," said Kayla.