Photo: CTV

"Starvin' Marvin" can thank a complaining neighbour for saving one of his nine lives.

The cat, named by the staff at the Knight Road Gospel Chapel, was discovered beneath the eaves at the church.

Underweight, he had presumably been there at least a month.

A neighbour had been complaining for weeks of a meowing sound, but church trustee Raymond Cooper told CTV Vancouver he didn't hear a thing when he investigated.

"I came out and looked and there's no noise, nothing. But I noticed that there's two crows up on the chimney," Cooper said. "And I thought it was one of the crows, just imitating a cat. Paid no attention."

The complaining persisted and, eventually, the cat was discovered.

Cooper said he has no idea how the cat got there.

"I know every inch of the building and there isn't room enough for anything to get in," Cooper said.

Or, how it survived.

"I think it was surviving off moisture from the roof, but nothing to eat – nothing at all," he said.

Several members of the church, the SPCA and firefighters spent hours getting the cat out.

Despite being trapped for as long at it was, Marvin is said to be in pretty good health.

"He has very sore front feet, and we're assuming it's from him clawing and trying to exit the building," Vancouver branch manager Jodi Dunlop said.

The cat has been neutered, so Dunlop believes it does have a home.

"He's a lovely boy," Dunlop said. "It's a Christmas miracle."

--with files from CTV Vancouver