Ammie Dees, 36, heard a strange noise when she started to investigate whether a trapped kitten could be rescued, although it turned out the noise came from a lot closer than she thought
A mum-of-two who believed she heard a kitten trapped under the floorboards discovered the noise was, in fact, coming from her own shoes.
Ammie Dees was doing housework when she began to notice a persistent squeak. The 36-year-old spent seven hours trying to find the cat and eventually called personal trainer husband Will, 40, home to help.
The worried couple even went into a crawl space wearing a head torch and carrying a tin of tuna to entice the animal out. But it was only when recruiter Ammie ran back inside to change her clothes that she realised the sound had been coming from her own sandals.
"We're selling our house and I was frantically running around trying to get ready for the estate agent," Ammie, of Amelia Island, near Jacksonville, Florida, US, said. "I was in and out of the house and it was raining outside so my shoes got wet.
"I heard a squeaking noise that sounded like a kitten. I heard it in different places around the house. I called my husband and said there was a kitten in the crawl space under the house.
"The estate agent came around and they heard it too. My daughter was on the ground trying to listen for it. I was really worried about it. I thought it might be a mum with kittens.
"We went outside to check under the house with a head torch on. We took a can of tuna to try and attract it out but we were worried we were scaring it away.
"I went inside to put some joggers and an old top on so I could fully crawl under the house. When I went inside I could hear it all over the house. I thought there was no way that it could be in all those places and I realised it was coming from my shoes.
"We were relieved it wasn't a cat but my husband said 'You've got to be joking' because it went on for around seven hours. Once we'd processed it we found it hilarious. It could only happen to me."
She shared a clip of the incident on TikTok and it racked up more than 422,000 views. In the footage, Ammie can be seen walking around while the squeaking noise can be heard coming from the floor.
Ammie's children - Beau, six, and two-year-old Selah - can be seen with their ears to the ground.
Will places a can of tuna at the entrance to the crawl space while Ammie wears a head torch. Ammie can then be seen stepping on the floor in front of a mirror after realising where the noise was coming from.
Ammie added: "People in the comments were asking why I didn't realise that I couldn't hear it when I was at the supermarket but I work from home so I didn't go out. Loads of people said they'd had similar experiences with their sandals."
One pal said: "This happened to me. I dug in my vents, wondering why they only 'cried' when I would walk away and not when I was arm deep in the vent. I felt so silly when I realised it was my sandals."
Another person said: "I would be so embarrassed I would keep buying cat food and wouldn’t have told a soul." A third added: "How are the shoes making that sound?"