pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire

Calque of French tirer les marrons du feu, which comes from the fable The Monkey and the Cat by Jean de la Fontaine.

pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire (third-person singular simple present pulls someone's chestnuts out of the fire, present participle pulling someone's chestnuts out of the fire, simple past and past participle pulled someone's chestnuts out of the fire)

1. Synonym of pull someone's bacon out of the fire (“rescue someone, especially at the last moment”)
   • 2006 Oct. 9, Jacob Heilbrunn, "‘Work Hard, Study ... and Keep Out of Politics!’" (book review), New York Times (retrieved 23 Oct 2011):

     By now, however, it's unlikely that even this faithful retainer can once more pull Bush's chestnuts out of the fire.

2. To do another person's difficult work. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

• cat's-paw