JOHANNESBURG — Francine, a Persian cat from Pretoria, probably cemented her name in the annals of animal antics after she was tiled into a hole by a plumber for at least six hours, Beeld newspaper reported yesterday.

“She was full of wet cement and mud,” her owner, Liezel Meyer, said, after finally finding her missing cat tiled in underneath the bath.

A plumber broke out bricks and tiles underneath the bath to fix a leaking tap at the house in The Wilds, east of Pretoria, at around 2 pm on Monday.

When Meyer arrived home after work, her cat was missing.

“When I walked into the bathroom, I heard a distressed meow. She sounded terrified.

“I had wondered earlier if she hadn’t been tiled in, but then I thought, ‘What are the chances?’.

“But when I heard that meow, I just knew,” said Meyer.

By 8 pm, Meyer and a friend had used a screwdriver to remove the tiles and free Francine by pulling her out by her legs.

“Then we had a bath session of about an hour to get her clean again.”