It’s not often that an entire town participates in the rescue of a cat. Although in this case, it wasn’t by choice. However I haven’t seen any news reports of residents in the Gloucestershire town of Stow-on-the-Wold complaining. It happened when a local family cat named Gryffyndor was discovered at the top of a live power pole! Sadly the family stated the RSPCA informed them they needed to wait 24 hours and then call emergency services. Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue and Western Power Distribution had other plans to avoid waiting that long. And after 8 hours of brainstorming, the safest decision for all involved was made.
They would turn off the power to the pole and carefully retrieve the trapped feline.
But that would mean that half of the town would lose power during the rescue.
The family had noticed that her food hadn’t been touched during the day. It was about 8:30 pm when they finally heard the one year old curious girl meows from the elevated prison. The grey tabby managed to find her way up the pole and sadly couldn’t get back down. And with live power lines just inches away, onlookers and rescue teams watched anxiously as the minutes ticked by. None more so that one of the families’ boys, 10-year-old Connor who patiently waited for his beloved feline to be back in his arms.
It took a total of 5 firemen and 3 electric workers to make Connor’s dreams a reality. For the town, their sacrifice was a 5-minute window with no power. A small price to pay for the safety of an animal in our opinion!
As soon as the live wires were turned off, one of the firemen made the climb up to the scared cat. He slowly approached her and whispered calming words to keep her from panicking and jumping.
Thankfully, he casually reached around and scruffed her by the neck safely, bringing her back down to ground level.
But don’t worry about him “scruffing” her. This doesn’t hurt the cats as it mimics how their mother cat would move them as a kitten.
In less than a minute, Gryffyndor, or “Gryffy” as she is referred to, was wrapped safely in Connor’s arms. The thrilled young man held her tightly as her rescuers looked on with smiles beaming. The town fared just as well and their power was only down for about 5 minutes during the midnight hours. Best case scenario for all involved!
Once their crazy Saturday night was over, the family shared the happy girl enjoying a long overdue meal.
