For at least two days and maybe more, residents of a suburban Denver neighborhood worried about the fate of a black cat called Panther, who was perched atop a 36-foot (11-meter) utility pole.
Panther stayed put despite efforts by his co-owner, Alexis Soberanis, and others to coax him down in Aurora. Neither pleading nor the enticement of food did the trick, Sentinel Colorado reports.
The cat went missing earlier this week and was first spotted atop the pole on Wednesday.
“Everybody’s been just like, ‘Put food down and it’ll come down eventually,'” said Aurora resident Jessica Meadows on Friday morning, when the city received its first snow of the season. “That’s not going to happen.”
Meadows said she and other neighbors called Aurora animal control and Xcel Energy for help.
“Everyone says they can’t do anything,” Meadows said.
Standard practice, according to another utility, is to give cats time to make their way back down on their own, Sentinel Colorado reported.
News of Panther's plight reached Aurora Councilmember Curtis Gardner and city officials dispatched a ladder truck Friday afternoon. After getting the truck into place, firefighters rescued the cat. Panther seemed eager to step into a pet carrier.
Kimberly Medina, another Panther co-owner, said he had always been allowed outside.
No more, she said: “Never.”
