Clydebank woman's heartbreak after kitten falls from window

Monica Devaney told the Post she had not long finished her nightshift on Saturday, August 12 when she was woken by her partner.   

Toby (Image: Monica Devaney)

The 22-year-old, who lives in Dalmuir Court, said: “There are holes in each of the window frames [in the flat], but these are not big enough for a cat to get out.  

“The locks on the windows are also broken and it’s been letting in draughts and dampness, that’s what my initial complaint to West Dunbartonshire Council was about.  

“I had been working the night before so I had come home and gone to sleep but around 2pm my boyfriend woke me up to say the bedroom window had blown open and he couldn’t find Toby anywhere.

“I never, ever thought the window frame was going to fall in. At the time the window had been closed, the handles were still facing down in the lock position, and it blew open and the whole thing just came flying back.  

“My boyfriend had spent a couple of hours searching high and low to try and find her before waking me up. 

“We spent hours looking for her and we searched outside.” 

One of the gaps in Monica's windows (Image: Monica Devaney)

After Toby went missing on Saturday, Monica phoned West Dunbartonshire Council’s (WDC) on-call team and within an hour someone attended to her flat. 

The 22-year-old said that the worker “jammed the window closed” and told her partner someone would be out on Monday (August 14) to replace it. 

However, Monica claims that the council has not yet been in contact with her to schedule/carry out the repair work.

Monica explained that she put posters up around the council-owned flat block on Saturday afternoon in an effort to trace Toby.   

It is understood that the posters contained a description of the cat and Monica’s phone number so that if anyone was to find her or had any information they could get in contact.  

Sadly, on Sunday, August 13, Monica received a text message that she had dreaded. It appeared that Toby had fallen out of the window sometime after it had blown open on Saturday.

She said: “A woman found her on the ground outside the flat. She was a carer who worked in the local area, and she text me a photo of the cat asking if she was ours.   

“She said she went to get her car to take Toby to the vet but by the time she came back she was gone.   

“We got in contact with the council to see if any of their workers had picked her up and taken her away, but they told us they hadn’t.  

“She’s not been taken to any vets, she’s not in the animal hospital, we’ve even checked the bins but there’s been no sign of her.   

“We asked the building caretaker to check the big bins out the back, but they said no. It was horrible we’d had her right from birth. 

“Every time I go into my bedroom all I can picture is her falling out.   

“I bawl my eyes out every time I go into the house. It’s a lot quieter without her.” 

Monica claims that she first raised concerns over the safety of her windows when she moved into the property in December 2021.   

A WDC spokesperson said that following an inspection carried out in 2022, it was concluded that no repair work was required, and no further complaints were logged until the incident on August 12.  

A statement reads: “We are sorry this tenant is unhappy with the service she has received.  

“When the council was made aware of the faulty window, it was secured by our officers within an hour.   

“A follow-up repair has also been scheduled and an inspection of all windows will be undertaken during this visit.  

“We are liaising with this tenant directly.”