A CURIOUS cat customer was cut free from a lingerie shop’s roof after the puzzled owner heard wails coming from her ceiling.

Cedric the tabby cat became trapped in the roof of Provocative Pleasures in Rodbourne Road last week.

Perhaps the cat was acting as a peeping Tom when it made a beeline for the roof above the stock room of the underwear store.

Armed with a pair of scissors, resourceful shop owner Tanya Williams cut through the ceiling plasterboard, freed the cat’s head, and pulled him through to safety.

Tanya said she had been plagued for days by a mystery meowing but each time she had checked outside, she had seen nothing.

“I thought I was going mad because each time I checked there was nothing. The last thing you would expect is to find a cat up there,” she said.

“On Saturday I heard this incredibly loud, distressed sounding wailing coming from the ceiling. But never in a million years did I think a cat was in the ceiling. I took a pair of scissors and just thought I’d have a look.”

And Tanya, who is more used to receiving bras and knickers, took an unexpected delivery when she was met with the surreal sight of the two-year-old tabby cat’s face peering through her ceiling

“I saw an ear at first then when I made the hole bigger I could see a cat’s face. I was just glad I wasn’t going mad all this time. He looked so sad and tried to poke his head through. I didn’t even think, I just did it.

Tanya said Cedric was frightened and emaciated when he was pulled from the ceiling cavity.

“He fell onto my shoulders and I have never had a cat cuddle me that much before, he kept nuzzling me. We had an instant connection and he just seemed so relieved to be out of there,

And the gaping hole in cat-lover Tanya’s ceiling is a small price to pay for Cedric’s safety.

“The customer didn’t come first. I told them, sorry I can’t serve you, there’s a cat stuck in my ceiling and they immediately said they would run the shop for me and get cat pouches for him.”

After some food and water the feisty feline is now in the care of VetsNow Referrals Clinic, Shrivenham Road where he is on a drip and receiving medication while his owner is tracked down.

Tanya said the Provocative Pleasures pussycat is welcome back in the shop anytime.

“I’m so relieved he’s safe and on the mend. I would love to give him a home if his owner didn’t come forward. He’s a fighter.”