When firefighters from Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service got a call to help free someone stuck between two buildings, they weren’t sure what to expect. When they arrived and discovered there was an animal stuck upside down between two houses, they were even more confused.

Normally, firefighters get calls to rescue stuck cats or occasionally a trapped dog. This time, it was a tiny deer.

The muntjac deer had somehow gotten himself wedged between two walls upside down, an impressive feat. Passersby had noticed the deer and contacted the local fire service for assistance. The firefighters were struggling to figure out how to approach the complicated rescue, so they contacted the RSPCA for some additional help.

“This was a tricky rescue because the deer was trapped so tightly, and to complicate matters was also upside down — it must have been terrifying for him,” animal rescue officer Karen Nix said in a press release.

Very carefully and under the supervision of the RSPCA, the firefighters used ropes and poles to slowly pull the deer through the gap between the two walls and eventually out to safety. The deer appeared to be OK and uninjured even after his ordeal.

“It was such a relief to watch him run free into the undergrowth,” Nix said.

No one knows exactly how the deer got himself stuck like that in the first place but hopefully, it’ll never happen again.