ELVIS impersonator Eddie Vee staged a rodent rescue when a grey squirrel got caught not in a trap, but in a tree in his York garden.

The rambling rodent had got itself all shook up by climbing the tree, then getting stuck fast.

It was spotted by Eddie's eagle-eyed neighbour as she left for school.

She asked the singer to slip on his blue suede slippers and become the squirrel's saviour.

Eddie, real name Graham Cambridge, said: "It had got its legs wedged between the branches and couldn't move.

"My daughters were quite concerned, especially the younger one who loves animals, but after a quick nudge with the clothes prop it was off again."

Eddie still staged the rodent rescue despite a nasty encounter with a squirrel a few years back.

"A squirrel bit me on the hand in the Museum Gardens, but I didn't hold that against this one."

An RSPCA spokeswoman said: "Well done to this have a go Elvis impersonator. Squirrels are usually quite sure-footed up trees, so perhaps this one was having a bad day."

Updated: 09:11 Thursday, April 25, 2002