Trip Up a Pole Has Scared Cat Out on a Limb

A stray cat that climbed up a utility pole--and apparently could not find its way back down--spent its third cold and lonely day up there Sunday, despite the efforts of a family living below.

Ken Maziol said his wife and 3-year-old son spotted the gray tiger-striped feline perched about three-fourths of the way up the 50-foot pole in a corner of their London Place home’s backyard Friday morning. Since then they have tried, in vain, to find someone to get the cat down.

Maziol said the Orange County Humane Society, the county animal shelter, and the city Fire Department told him they don’t rescue animals perched high atop poles. Anaheim’s utility company did offer to get a long stick and knock the animal down, he said.

Maziol was told by others that the cat will come down when it gets hungry enough, so his family left food out for the feline. But Sunday morning, it crept even higher, said Maziol, 38.

A spokeswoman for the humane society said the agency merely keeps animals whose owners can no longer care for them and does not make rescues. Spokesmen for the city’s utility and the Fire Department said that it is too dangerous to risk a human life to rescue a scared, often feisty animal.

Because of the “inherent danger of high voltage lines,” the utility does not rescue animals trapped on its poles, spokesman Wayne Barlow said. “The cat might get crazy and come in contact with the phase (conductor), and that could cause serious injury to the lineman.” Besides, he said, the utility does not have animal-handling equipment.

A spokesman for the communications network that dispatches firefighters for six central and north county cities, including Anaheim, agreed.

“County animal control has the proper equipment to deal with that, snares that can reach out to the animal. We keep our units available for emergency situations for people,” said lead dispatcher Rich Toro.

Come Down on Their Own

Another dispatcher said cats usually come down on their own, eventually. “The story goes, you never see cat bones in trees,” he said.

The county’s animal control service could not be reached Sunday afternoon for comment.

Maziol said he also tried calling the Anaheim mayor’s “hot line,” but received a recording and left a message on a tape machine.

Maziol himself is a dog owner, as are several of his neighbors with backyards that abut the utility pole.

“That’s probably what drove him (the cat) up there,” Maziol said. But the dogs are pretty much ignoring the cat now. “Now, it’s fear of how high he is that’s probably keeping him up there,” he said.

Maziol said he does not know to whom the cat belongs, and he doesn’t have any sense of attachment to the cat. “I just hate to see an animal suffering before our own eyes and do nothing about it.”