Luton resident Jennifer Castleman found a rather unusual addition had made its way on to her shelf of ornaments last week.
A frightened fox had made its way into the house after being chased by Mrs Castleman’s dog, Juno, in the garden of her Osborne Road home.
The frightened fox, who had a cut paw, zipped through an open door, up the stairs and then proceeded to get wedged between the banisters.
Mrs Castleman said: “I tried to free the fox from the banister – but he then moved out of reach on the shelf and half of my Buddha ornaments went flying.
“Then he just sat there with his legs crossed like a dog. I just kept talking to him with a soothing tone and he did not appear to be frightened – he just kept looking at me until the RSPCA arrived.
“I tried to coax him down with food and left the front door open – but I think he was just too high up and too frightened to jump.
“He did have an injury on him, but it was very small and he was checked over by the RSPCA and he was fine – so he was released back into the wild.
“It was all very bizarre and strange – the funny thing is my cat Angel just slept through the whole thing and didn’t stir once despite all the commotion.”
RSPCA inspector Mel Fisher attended the incident and rescued the fox from the shelf.
She said: “This is one of the oddest on call fox retrievals I’ve had to do in a while.
“Thankfully he only had a tiny superficial cut on his pad and I re-released him at midnight.
“But it was a strange sight to see a fox just sitting there on a shelf – not moving and surrounded by ornaments!”