Many of us love animals to the point that we may even keep them as our pets. When we bring them home, we love them with all our hearts and may even treat them as our own family members.

They’re so cute, cuddly and most important of all, precious, that you wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to them ever.

So when this elderly couple’s cat got stranded on a fourth-floor window ledge presumably after climbing up from their second-floor apartment, they panicked.

Obviously, they wanted nothing but the cat to be returned to them safely. Someone had to get it for them quick before the cat fell to his death.

But who?

The couple was surely not going to be able to support each other’s weights by themselves.

So who could possibly be nimble and light enough for them to collectively lower down from the fifth floor to the third?

Ahh, that’s right. That’s why they have a grandson. To use for these kinds of emergency situations.

In case you thought I was kidding, I wasn’t. This elderly couple from Sichuan really dangled their seven-year-old grandson by the waist with a rope to rescue their beloved cat.

Now I can understand their love for their cat and how much they value its life, but did it not cross their mind that their grandson’s life is equally as, if not more, important as their pet’s?

The dangerous rescue mission was caught on camera and residents can be heard shouting in Mandarin that it is dangerous and that the boy may fall.

Regardless, the couple continues to allow their grandson to be put in this dangerous situation.

He shuffles across the fourth-floor window ledge and tries to reach the cat. After a while, he manages to hold the cat in his arms and they slowly hoist him back up to their floor.

After the incident, some residents went straight to the elderly couple and scolded them for carrying out such a dangerous act.

The couple then apologised and claimed that they were so anxious that they weren’t thinking straight. They were also counselled by the neighbourhood committee and they promised that such a thing will never happen again.

Thankfully, the boy who was left in his grandparents’ care because his parents were working out of town was unhurt. While he may have been fine this time, it doesn’t change the fact that he could have fallen to his death still.

Hopefully nothing like this happens again.

You can view the video here.