This week, first responders from Germany’s Dortmund Fire Brigade received a call alerting them to an animal in distress. The caller had spotted a little red squirrel who’d somehow managed to end up stuck in a hole of a manhole cover on the street.

The helpless squirrel was in need of saving — but he sure wasn’t about to make it easy.

Oftentimes, animals in need of assistance seem to sense the pure intentions of people who step in to help them, taking on a calm demeanor as if to facilitate their own rescue. This particular squirrel, on the other hand, was decidedly more stubborn.

He tried to bite the Good Samaritan who initially noticed him and stopped to help him out — so she called for backup.

And even after at least five firefighters showed up on scene, the squirrel’s resistance to their aid hardly relented.

“The [firefighters] lifted the manhole cover and carefully tried to free the frightened animal from the hole,” the Dortmund Fire Brigade said in a release. “However, this turned out to be quite complicated, since the squirrel did not show himself to be cooperative.”

Fortunately, despite the squirrel’s misplaced combativeness, his rescuers persisted.

With gentle precision, the firefighters eventually managed to save the squirrel from his uncomfortable predicament.

No thanks to him, of course.

It might not have been the smoothest rescue, what with flurry of little claws and teeth, but their efforts paid off.

“In the end, however, the firefighters managed to free the animal,” the fire brigade said. “[He] was unharmed and disappeared straight into the nearest tree.”

Thankfully, it would appear that the rescuers took no offense to the squirrel’s uncooperativeness, or his apparent lack of gratitude. They were satisfied enough, it seems, simply to have been able to help him on his way.