This is the moment a mischievous moggie really took the puss – when he locked his family out of their apartment and then seemed to taunt them from the window.

Panic As Vengeful Puss Locks Family Out Of Home pic.twitter.com/48d9Lzkndk

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The family, from Shatura, near the Russian capital Moscow, had returned from a trip but could not open the front door.

The latch, they later discovered, had been locked from the inside apparently by their ginger and white pet moggie.

Then, to add insult to injury, they could see the puss smugly staring down at them from the balcony window of their fourth-storey flat.

The cat, it seemed, was taking revenge for being left home alone in the apartment while the family took a trip to their dacha, a Russian country house.

Eventually, they called the fire brigade rescue experts to use their extendable ladder to get back into the flat on 10th July.

Footage that emerged on social media shows the firefighters climbing up the ladder to get onto the apartment balcony.

The Emergency Situations Ministry of the Russian Federation said in a statement obtained by Newsflash on 11th July: “On Monday, July 10, employees of the search and rescue post of the 286th fire and rescue unit of the Mosoblpozhspas GKU MO, together with employees of the federal fire service, helped a young family get into an apartment that the pet had closed from the inside.”

The statement went on: “Vladimir Remizov, deputy head of fire and rescue unit No. 286, said that a resident of Shatura, who returned home with his wife and son from his dacha and could not open the front door with a key, turned to the Sistema-112 unified emergency service for the help of rescuers.

“It turned out to be locked from the inside with a latch, but only the cat was in the dwelling.”

Remizov explained: “The duty shift quickly arrived at the specified address.

“Rescuers, having assessed the situation, decided to enter the apartment on the fourth floor through the loggia using a ladder.

“From the window, the family’s pet, a ginger cat, was attentively watching what was happening.

“Ruslan Kulaev, shift supervisor, went up the stairs, carefully opened the balcony door and let the owners in, who thanked the specialists for their help and professional work.”