Cat rescued from Oliver power pole after days being stuck

Local Oliver residents expressed concerned about a cat that had been stuck on a power pole for five days, before being rescued.

On Tuesday morning, the cat showed no sign of budging.

"We don't want to see the cat get injured. We don't want anybody to try something stupid, like saving it, rescuing it themselves and stuff," said local resident Matt Miller. "We'd like to see some trained professionals come out here and deal with the equipment that they're trained to deal with."

While the cat tried to get down several times, Miller said it wasn't able to and was growing more agitated as time went on. Its distressed meows grew louder.

Castanet arrived on scene Tuesday morning.

"The cat may have been up there for longer, but we first noticed it about five days ago," Miller said.

The Oliver resident said he called FortisBC Monday.

"Getting a positive response from from BC Hydro, but finding out that this this pole wasn't one of theirs, and then calling Fortis and getting pretty much the complete opposite response from them," Miller said.

"They basically just told us to put some food at the bottom of the pole and wait for it to jump down on its own.It's made repeated attempts, it's almost fall in a couple times [...] the cat seems pretty scared."

Miller and his partner posted on social media looking for help with the cat. Several people made various suggestions, including a recommendation to call the fire department. But the couple said it seems like few actually went through it themselves.

On the Facebook post, the Oliver Fire Department commented, saying they can't rescue animals near high voltage power lines or transformers.

"Only trained professionals from Fortis with appropriate protective equipment can work in proximity to those lines," they added.

In an emailed statement, FortisBC told Castanet they typically wait for animals to come down for safety reasons, adding "attempting to remove them from a power pole may result in injury to the animal or our employees."

"We were notified of a cat stuck on a power pole in Oliver this morning and crews were dispatched to the site to assess the situation.

"In this instance, it was determined that the safest solution was to temporarily de-energize the line to remove the cat from the pole to prevent damage to our electricity equipment and avoid potential power outages to the surrounding community."

Miller said he hopes to see more awareness about what to do in such situations.

"On what the appropriate channel is. How to deal with situations like this and stuff," he said.

"Because it's a sad thing to watch. The only reason why we're even doing anything about it, or why we even care is because we're animal lovers, and we want to see this cat get down safely."

A FortisBC line technician arrived while Castanet was on site, shutting off power and heading up to retrieve the cat when it jumped down.

The cat was uninjured and ran to safety.

Photo: Sarah Crookall

FortisBC retrieves cat from power pole in Oliver.