THUNDER BAY — The cat came back, with the help of a crew from Synergy North.
Residents of a Thunder Bay neighbourhood had been appealing for someone to come to the aid of a cat stuck at the top of a hydro pole in the East End.
The orange tabby, named DJ, was first spotted Saturday perched on a pole in the back lane in the 900 block of Alberta Street in the East End, possibly after it sought safety from a pursuing coyote or dog.
On Monday afternoon, the cat was still there.
Area resident Liz Millette said numerous local agencies were contacted about trying to get the animal down, but nothing was being done, and she was very worried.
"The poor little thing is gonna die," she said.
Millette said the cat appeared to be making an effort to climb down, but kept going back to the top, and was "looking very weak."
A spokesperson for Synergy North called this a unique circumstance.
"When the Synergy North team has seen this in the past, the cat usually does come down on its own," Amanda Bay said.
"We've also learned from past experience that people standing underneath the pole often deter the cat from making its way down. With safety always being Synergy North's number one priority, and to provide any sort of assistance, we would have to de-energize the power line."
Synergy North continued to monitor the situation, Bay said, and would act if necessary.
"If the cat does not make its way down on its own by this evening, there will be a planned outage in that area, at which time a Synergy North crew will go and safely make its best efforts to retrieve the cat."
The rescue operation was performed successfully on Monday night.
Power was restored to the neighbourhood after an outage of close to 90 minutes.
This story was updated Tuesday morning following the successful retrieval of the cat.
