Cat search puts man in psych ward

NEW YORK, July 25 (UPI) -- A New York contractor was committed to a psychiatric ward when he broke through walls to retrieve a lost cat -- an animal doctors thought was a delusion.

Chris Muth got out of the hospital after four days, the New York Post reported. The lost cat, Rumi, spent somewhat longer, 15 days, in the bowels of a Brooklyn church being converted into apartments.

Muth said he panicked at the thought of losing Rumi when the cat wandered off because he was caring for it for a friend. After going through a hole in a wall, Rumi fell down a shaft.

When Muth broke several walls down, the superintendent called police, who took him to the hospital. There, doctors found that he had a "bizarre delusion" that he was trying to rescue a friend's cat, The Brooklyn Paper said.

A professional cat rescuer was finally brought in to get Rumi out of the building.

Muth told The Brooklyn Paper he "panicked" because he thought the cat might starve to death. "I can fix holes, but I can't bring a cat back to life," he said.