Freaking hero... respect
how_we_burned 15 points 6 months ago
A couple weeks later he ran up a pine tree and got stuck for 4 days again. This time I fashioned a pole and just knocked him off the branch. He fell about 20 feet into a pile of leaves and pine needles and was fine.
I wasn't 11 but as a young man, newly purchased home owner and father I was struck by an epiphany that I was able to get a cat after years of never ending moving and renting.
So I went out and got the greatest cat I could ever find. A grey and white tuxedo.
Well within a month this idiot had climbed a Norfolk pine tree. A good 20 plus feet, right to the fricken top.
For 6 hours he meowed and meowed. My daughter meowed and begged for me to get him. Now I was by no means a tree climber but I wasn't gonna leave em and he clearly couldn't work out how to get down.
So up that tree, sap, pine needles, webs, all in my fucking mouth, I climbed until I got to the top and grabbed that idiot. It was fucking terrify (I hate heights). I shoved him in my hoodie and somehow got down.
Thus he became forever known as stupid cat.
That said he wasn't that stupid that he ever repeated it. Never went higher then the first branch of a tree again.
samus12345 6 points 6 months ago
Hard to judge the entire species when some people will murder other humans without a second thought while others wouldn't hurt a fly. We're complicated.
Regrettable_incident 1 point 6 months ago
I am also terrified of heights. I think I'd just cut the tree down.
samus12345 6 points 6 months ago
Did he ever get stuck another time, or was twice enough?
absquatulate 28 points 6 months ago
Omg wasn't this story on reddit a few days ago? Something is off here. Why would the cat simply stay there for 5 days? No cat would just sit there for that long - hunger usually gets the better of them and they risk jumping even if afraid at first. Also why haven't people done anything about that cat in the days since this was posted on reddit? If that cat really is stuck don't wait for the fkn electric company, get a fkn ladder and get the cat. Or get a blanket under the pole and prod the cat until it jumps. No one has been doing anything about that cat for 5 days, wtf?? None of this makes any sense
LeapSecond 18 points 6 months ago
Maybe it's weird that the cat didn't try jumping down but this situation is not that rare. I've seen a workplace where a cat was stuck in one of those semi-floors between windows and when asked the employees were like, oh yeah, she's been there a few days.
stiffyGlitch 2 points 6 months ago
I had a different situation. There was a raccoon stuck in an old tractor tire in our neighborhood, and nobody did anything for 3 straight days. I rescued him, eventually. He was cold, hungry, and scared, but didn't bite or hiss at me. I think he knew that I was helping him.
frostysauce 7 points 6 months ago
I believe that might have been a different cat on reddit. I believe that one was up there for three days and it was updated they were rescued after the third. But I drink a lot so I'm not sure.
AnUnusualRelic 2 points 6 months ago
TIL technicians come in buckets.
(I thought they came in cans)
ArcaneSlime 19 points 6 months ago
“For the safety of both the animal and our crews, Xcel Energy is not able to respond to remove animals from power poles or other electrical equipment. When animals are frightened, rescues can unfortunately lead to injury to the animal or to the people attempting to help. Additionally, our equipment carries a risk of electrical contact, even when it may not appear energized. Because of these safety risks, we cannot shut off power for rescue attempts,” Xcel said on social media.
Translation: "Cat might scratch our dude, or we might get sued if we accidentally hurt it during rescue. Additionally, though we 100% have to have the ability to shut down that strip for maintenance, if we totally didn't do that and went up there anyway it would be dangerous which is why we do shut it off during maintenance. Because of the safety risks involved with literally breaking maintenance protocol which is 100% optional, we could just shut it down like we do for maintenance for ten fucking minutes and grab the cat with a cherry picker, but fuck your cat."
muusemuuse 1 point 6 months ago
Would it be so difficult to put an anti-cat shroud under the cat so it can’t just keep climbing?
ickplant 16 points 6 months ago
Full story: https://kdvr.com/...
SeventySeven 14 points 6 months ago
Fuck Xcel Energy.
LeapSecond 32 points 6 months ago
Most cats don't know that though
starlinguk 18 points 6 months ago
It wouldn't have been up there for 5 days if it wasn't
TrickDacy -1 points 6 months ago
There would always be a risk any backup systems fail. As another commenter pointed out, in other countries it would be illegal to cut power like that for that kind of reason. And that's a good thing. Power is literally keeping people alive and shouldn't be turned off because it seems mean to leave it on.
But a better point is, no one discussing this knows what downstream effects could happen if they killed the power. Seems kind of crazy to me to pretend we do.
scratchee 10 points 6 months ago
A backup system that isn’t tested regularly is not a backup at all, just the illusion of one.
If you can’t turn the power off with 24h notice then nature will turn it off with zero notice at the most inconvenient moment.
TrickDacy -9 points 6 months ago
I do not follow the logic of people being so blinded by their love of cats that they literally think they can become electrical grid engineers and know all the risks, just because they want to know them.
It does not matter if every single vulnerable building has backups and tested them yesterday (obviously none of that could ever be close to true), it's still a non-zero risk to human lives, for one cat.
ickplant 8 points 6 months ago
If their back up system fails then it’s their fault for not keeping it up to date. Seriously, my husband is an engineer who designs these battery systems. They do not “fail” if they are maintained and replaced properly.
TrickDacy -5 points 6 months ago
Patently absurd. Technology often fails regardless of what you do. Inviting that failure would be negligence and should be illegal.
The one thing I know for sure about any engineer is that we are intimately familiar with the concept of things failing when it's least convenient.
wabafee 2 points 6 months ago
I guess by not turning it off they risked people being electrocuted and possibly result to a brownout within the area, seeing how eventually resulted to bystanders attempting to rescue the cat and a bad PR.
Personally I think it's just a lapse in risk analysis on the electric company.
FluidBeef 6 points 6 months ago
The trick is to ignore them. My cat got halfway up the tree in our yard before deciding he didn’t like it, then did some crazy Free Solo shit to climb down, including swinging from a branch over to the main trunk from a claw hold. He’s never gone up again.
chiliedogg 5 points 6 months ago
My father was a firefighter, and his go-to quote every time someone wanted a cat rescued was "How often do you see a cat skeleton in a tree?"
They eventually jump down. They can generally survive terminal velocity falls without injury so long as they land well, which they generally do when they jump out of the tree. But it's still scary, so it may take them a bit to build up the nerve for the jump.
stiffyGlitch 2 points 6 months ago
Five days? FIVE DAYS?! That poor baby! I hope she's safe! Awwhhh....That poor kitty...
polotype 1 point 6 months ago
Then again, if they can get the cat out whithout cutting off power, it might save a whole district from power loss. And depending on the duration/location, your neighbouring industries like steel mills would be very much unhappy to have theire steel go solid inside their pipes and have to replace all of them...
polotype -1 points 6 months ago
Holup now,
That's not what i said, first of all, i'm not familiar with what i assume is american infrastructure, so i assumed worst case scenario and went with it being some important bit for them to refuse it being turned off.
Second, i didn't say "fuck that cat he shouldn't have gone up ther in the first place", i said:
if they can get that cat out without cutting power it might save a whole district from power loss
Which is a whole nother thought.
I understand your reaction to this poor cat being stuck up here, and i could also have assumed that if it has been going for 4 days, they might not be able to save the cat without the power grid operator doing something, which is a relevant argument which i maybe should've taken into account
But you simply can't go around telling people they are sociopath when they just propose we take the (at the time) seemingly more practical route.
Edit: thanks for the constructive argument, What a mature understanding of online discourse
FiskFisk33 6 points 6 months ago
Looking at the power line on the picture: HAHA no.
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Typical internet cats. Videos, pics, memes, and discussion welcome!
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The cat was rescued! Xcel refused to help. Someone in the community finally found a big enough ladder, climbed up to live wires and rescued the cat. Thankfully everyone is safe.
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