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8+ ArchivesJanuary gloom continues, but there are a few things that can put a smile on our face.

Bizarre phone calls are just one of these things.

As part of a campaign urging the public to double check before raising the alarm, the RSPCA has released extracts from 10 of the most bizarre calls they received from people concerned about animal welfare last year.

In the string of calls, people seem to constantly mistake objects for living creatures.

1. An officer was asked to help find a bird that was stuck in a loft in West Yorkshire.

“I went into the lady’s home and we could hear a regular ‘peeping’ noise,” said Animal Collection Officer Alan Farr. “She said she thought it was coming from her roof so we looked and looked. After searching around and unable to find the mystery bird I then went into her front room and found a smoke alarm beeping after the battery had gone flat.”

2. A call about an escaped tortoise in a garden in Sheffield which turned out to be this stone-made fella:

3. A call about a bird tangled in an aerial which turned out to be a kite attached to the aerial to deter -- guess what -- wild birds (you just can't make this one up).

4. A call about a snake which turned out to be a child's toy.

5. Someone called the RSPCA asking to visit a stray cat in Leeds that reportedly had "an open wound" under its tail. Before the officer could get to the address, the caller rang back to report: "Sorry, it's actually its bum".

6. Reports of an animal stuck under a floorboard making a "yowling noise"... which naturally was revealed to be a rose bush scraping on a window (?!?)

7. An officer was called after it was reported that a baby crocodile was at the side of the road. The reptile turned out to be this plastic toy.

8. Another officer was called to help a collapsed horse but he found only a pile of hay "wrapped in twine, lying lifeless on the ground".

9. A worried caller alerted the charity about a cat stuck in a cavity wall. An animal collection officer rushed to the scene to discover that the noise was coming from a computer game in a nearby bedroom.

10. And finally a caller reported an owl that had been sitting on a roof for over four days and didn't seem to be moving. Guess what? Turned out it was made of plastic!