CALIFORNIA – A cat called Fat Boy managed to survive for nine days atop a 45-foot power pole before being rescued by utility workers.
The rescue mission, which occurred in Fresno, California, triggered power to be cut from 250 homes while the cat was retrieved.
Linemen from Pacific Gas and Electric Co (PG&E) out of Fresno managed to get the cat down from the pole on Tuesday, according to the Fresno Bee.
The cat hadn’t had any food or water for nine days and didn’t budge for the pole despite wind and rain on Sunday.
His fourteen-year-old human, Andrew Perez, said his family had reached out to the fire department and other agencies, but to no avail.
He explained to the local paper: “We called everyone – anyone that could help, but they didn’t come,
“He’s a nice cat. He probably went up there because he got scared by a dog. I was scared.”
Silver Villa of nonprofit Paw Lives Matter claimed local tree services also declined to help rescue the cat, but she was determined to find someone who would retrieve the fur-ball.
Upon his retrieval, she immediately injected the cat with fluids and gave him food, which he began eating immediately.
She stated: “I figured somebody would’ve helped by now. I just wanted to make sure the cat was going to be saved, and I wasn’t going to get off the phone until it was.
“He’s pretty healthy for being up there this long.”
PG&E spokesman Denny Boyles stated: “It’s not a simple thing to climb a power pole and get a cat down.
“The first thing we have to do is de-energize the line – it’s a 12,000-volt line. The safety of the two guys who went up on the pole, and the crew member on the ground, has to be our first priority every time.
“Sometimes we wait out cats on poles … 99 percent of the time, cats come down on their own. In this case, it’s been up there that long, we just made the decision to go ahead and go up there.”
The company has installed pet-deterrent plastic on the pole which will help make sure no other animals make the excursion in future.
