Video followup: Seattle City Light rescues cat from Genesee power pole

February 4, 2013 at 10:23 am | In Pets, Utilities, West Seattle news | 46 Comments

We first told you last night about a little black cat stuck on a power pole at 46th/Andover – not with the intent of putting out a “somebody help!” call, but with the intent of finding its owner, since neighbors had no idea whose cat it was. Nonetheless, an outpouring of concern resulted, in WSB comments and on the WSB Facebook page – and repeated calls to Seattle City Light brought out a crew to help. Our video shows the rescue, just a short time ago – though as you’ll see, the cat did not want to stay with rescuer Aaron!

46 Comments

  1. Thank you Seattle City Light & Aaron! Wow that looked like a long leap!!

    Comment by Anne — 10:26 am February 4, 2013 #

  2. Thank you SCL! Thank you Aaron! Hope the little black cat finds its way home…and stays indoors!

    Comment by Carolyn Graye — 10:27 am February 4, 2013 #

  3. Thank you Aaron and SCL!! Restores my faith in humankind.

    Comment by Carolyn — 10:28 am February 4, 2013 #

  4. Well, there’s gratitude for ya!! ;) Poor kitty, I’m glad he/she’s safe. Thanks, Seattle Light!

    Comment by Halyn — 10:28 am February 4, 2013 #

  5. That little rascal!

    Comment by helridge — 10:33 am February 4, 2013 #

  6. Has this cat been identified as, Snooki, a neighborhood “stray” that has been fed by a group of people?

    I have been missing a black cat since December.

    If the cat is found, I will pay to have it scanned at the vet and will help to find it a home, if needed.

    Comment by Elle — 10:42 am February 4, 2013 #

  7. So…the cat jumps off the cherry picker and runs away…? No attempt to hand him over to someone for safekeeping?

    Comment by vraxvalhalla — 10:45 am February 4, 2013 #

  8. Yeah for City Light. That cat has chutzpah!!
    Hope it finds its home. Bet it wont stray too far again.

    Comment by birdrescuer — 10:46 am February 4, 2013 #

  9. Elle – it is free to have a pet scanned for a chip everywhere I have been .

    Comment by westcoastdeb — 10:50 am February 4, 2013 #

  10. There wasn’t anybody around Vrax and that was one seriously motivated cat. Aaron said that leap started at the bottom of the cherry picker.

    Comment by Patrick — 10:50 am February 4, 2013 #

  11. Thanks WSB and SCL, hope this poor little creature can find a home and a safe place to live…Aaron did a great job, very kind and gentle in the way he handled this kitty.

    Comment by anti-obstruction — 10:51 am February 4, 2013 #

  12. Where the kitty ran, north on 46th, is the location of a house where another cat was rescued from a fire by the Seattle Fire Department in January 2012. WSB showed the photo of the cat being given oxygen by a fire fighter.

    Comment by sc — 10:58 am February 4, 2013 #

  13. I showed this post to my cat and he told me their has been a small group of cats working the neiborhood i think he calle them the fuzzy face gang, Anyway he said their only out to have fun and to see what they can get away with.

    Comment by they — 11:00 am February 4, 2013 #

  14. Okay,, I’ll take back that joke about “What is big,yellow and sleeps six? A city light truck”

    Comment by rick — 11:12 am February 4, 2013 #

  15. Hurrah for Aaron and Seattle City Light.
    For as short as it is, that video provides huge suspense. First the cat moved away from Aaron, toward the wires. (Bites lips anxiously.) Then that heart-stopping leap. Finally, relief! to watch her scamper away with nothing broken.

    Comment by KatherineL — 11:23 am February 4, 2013 #

  16. Good job, Aaron, and SCL!

    .

    Mike

    Comment by miws — 11:37 am February 4, 2013 #

  17. Thank you seattle City Light

    Comment by Darrel Humphrey — 11:39 am February 4, 2013 #

  18. I’m impressed that Aaron managed to get the cat into the cherry picker when he did as it was clearly contemplating an escape. Fortunately, feline physiology allows them to jump from tremendous heights with impunity. Apparently modern cats are evolved from arboreal ancestors who were accustomed to occasionally falling from high tree branches. So I expect the dramatic leap didn’t do this scaredy-cat any harm.
    .
    Interesting BBC story about cats surviving falls from great heights here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17492802

    Comment by cjboffoli — 11:49 am February 4, 2013 #

  19. Thank you SCL and Aaron. I would have been very sad if bad things had happen to the poor kitty.

    Comment by cj — 11:59 am February 4, 2013 #

  20. YAYYY!!!!! Thank you Seattle City Light. Who can we email a thanks to??

    Comment by local — 12:18 pm February 4, 2013 #

  21. If the cat is spotted again (and it sounds like it may be a neighborhood stray), FAF or FCAT can trap it, assess for adoptability, and see that it is altered.
    info@fafseattle.org

    Thank you to Seattle City Light and all concerned folks.

    Comment by Marianne — 12:45 pm February 4, 2013 #

  22. Aaron, you are the man!

    Comment by wsidepride — 12:49 pm February 4, 2013 #

  23. It would have come down eventually…

    Comment by valvashon — 12:49 pm February 4, 2013 #

  24. Hooray for Aaron, City Light and WSB! City Light has a Facebook page, so I think we could post kind comments there:
    http://www.facebook.com/SeattleCityLight?fref=ts

    Comment by GreenGirl — 12:59 pm February 4, 2013 #

  25. If you replay the video, notice how the cat leaps. It basically is head down and it pushes off from the side of cherry-picker box to descend. It is a kind of dive designed to allow the animal to land right-side up and running.

    I don’t know that she would have been willing to do that without the assist from the cherry picker.

    Thinking about some cats liking heights (and Bombays with any Burmese heritage enjoy that), the characteristic of felines that has them be classed as carnivores is their ability to run down and kill prey on the move. I have seen this cat (or a close cousin) cross Genesee stealthily and suddenly rush into some brambles, emerging with a mouse in her jaws. I suppose an appropriate prey might have produced a rush down the pole.

    No matter what, I’m happy that she is safe and running around the neighborhood once again.

    Comment by orcmid — 1:29 pm February 4, 2013 #

  26. Great feel good stuff…

    Comment by toodles — 2:16 pm February 4, 2013 #

  27. Just like a cat…didn’t even say thank you… :) Good job guys!

    Comment by onceachef — 2:18 pm February 4, 2013 #

  28. Another cat-astrophe avoided…it might have been cat-aclysmic. :)

    Comment by onceachef — 2:21 pm February 4, 2013 #

  29. The willingness to go above and beyond-well, that’s just hot! Thank you to all who got involved! You have my admiration :)

    Comment by CJ — 2:35 pm February 4, 2013 #

  30. Thank you Aaron. You should have some really good karma for a long, long time. West Seattle (and all communities) need more people like you to take a few moments out of a busy money-making day, and give back. You and City Light have paid it forward for a while.

    Comment by Kravitz — 2:36 pm February 4, 2013 #

  31. onceachef: You have cat-alyzed my desire to cat-alog every cat-egory of cat-chy word that begins with ‘cat’ which is perhaps somewhat cat-hartic and more fun than reading the WSB’s coverage of the latest round of cat-burglars and cat-alytic converter thieves.

    Comment by cjboffoli — 4:02 pm February 4, 2013 #

  32. Thank you Aaron and Seattle City Light! Again reminded how cool people are and how many will try to help a little cat, a lost dog, or (last week) a ‘sailing’ marine mammal! I love our community and I feel so lucky to live here!

    Comment by JeriO — 4:04 pm February 4, 2013 #

  33. CJB and Chef – And nobody yet has used the term cat-atonic…

    Comment by WSB — 4:20 pm February 4, 2013 #

  34. I watched SFD try to stuff a cat into a sack behind my house one day that was up in a tree for a few days. The captian gave the rookie a sack then winked at me. It was awesome. That cat dug into his bunker gear and wouldnt let go.

    Comment by timh2o — 5:09 pm February 4, 2013 #

  35. Glad I could cat-er to your needs cjboffoli!

    Comment by onceachef — 5:44 pm February 4, 2013 #

  36. Hooray for SCL!!! Especially Aaron.

    Comment by MMB — 6:23 pm February 4, 2013 #

  37. Thank you to Awesome Aaron, SCL and to WSB!!!

    Comment by WS Family — 6:32 pm February 4, 2013 #

  38. Thanks Seattle light for helping this cat

    Comment by Rves — 6:44 pm February 4, 2013 #

  39. So what kind of cat-egory does this story fall into?? Anyway, I am very glad this has a happy ending. Most of us could use one! The folks that work at Seattle City Light are great – when they had to turn power off on our street for several hours they offered to loan us a generator. Watch these guys at work some time – they are amazing.I do hope that someone can befriend the kitty and turn he/she into an indoor kitty. Watch these guys at work some time – they are amazing.

    Comment by Karen Sykes — 6:49 pm February 4, 2013 #

  40. WSB, CJB, and Chef:

    *Nobody* can be cat-atonic while reading WSB!

    Comment by happy — 7:26 pm February 4, 2013 #

  41. Yay for Seattle CL and Aaron!!

    Darnit I’m late – but if you enjoyed that video you gotta know about this one (36 seconds) – hahaha!!!:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awf45u6zrP0

    Comment by Sara — 8:47 pm February 4, 2013 #

  42. Glad SCL stepped up. We called Police and Fire yesterday morning and neither were willing to help.

    Comment by concerned citizen — 12:13 am February 5, 2013 #

  43. Way to go, Aaron & City Light!

    Comment by GenHillOne — 5:22 am February 5, 2013 #

  44. By the cat’s whiskers, another cat-aclismic cat-astrophe avoided. Isn’t that the cat’s pajamas?

    Comment by Catwoman — 8:26 am February 5, 2013 #

  45. This very much reminds me of something that happend awhile ago that was on the news in various places.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9JyBZ8BXKg

    So glad the little black kitty was rescued! though I’m surprised they didn’t have a little bag or carrier to put him in for saftey when they got him off the pole. None the less, great job and hope the kitty finds it’s way home or to a good home.=)

    Comment by Erithan — 1:50 pm February 6, 2013 #

  46. Black cat….I hope you are okay!

    Comment by Sharon Akers — 7:54 pm February 9, 2013 #

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