Back in my twenties I attempted to rescue a cat. I was a window cleaner living and working in Surrey in those days.
One day I find a group of people staring up at the roof of a large house. A cat has climbed to the top of a tree at one side of house, has jumped on to the roof and is now sitting up on top of chimney. Owner of cat distraught. Neighbours worried. VE, then a young man of chivalrous instinct and heroic disposition (both qualities long since abandoned) extends his longest ladder up to the guttering, climbs up and tries to coax cat down. No luck with that. So as the cat won't come to VE VE decides to go to the cat. Roof is steep, so VE takes off shoes and scampers up the roof to the chimney, grabs chimney, grabs cat. Ripple of applause from audience.
Crunch time. Reality check. Need to get down roof with cat, wiggle myself on to the ladder and climb back down. Heroism gives way to (shall we say?) a "prudent reassessment" of my position. What did I learn at school about acceleration and gravity? Like Mrs May's Brexit strategy this is clearly not a thing to be rushed into. So one cat trapped on roof-top has become one cat and a window-cleaner trapped on roof-top.
There was a happy outcome for VE and moggie without bothering the fire brigade. A telephone engineers' van passed by after only a few minutes with its very long ladders. The guys climb up and lay a shorter ladder up to the roof which they hold in place so that I and cat can descend slowly and get down safely.