As a line worker, Penelec Troubleman Cy Carroll is accustomed to receiving early morning calls for jobs requiring his assistance. These work requests, however, typically do not involve cats. Until now, that is.

On the morning of Aug. 8 – which serendipitously happens to also be International Cat Day, a day reserved for celebrating our feline friends – Cy received an early call from one of his supervisors, Justin Szklenski. A customer in Erie, Pa., had phoned in overnight requesting rescue assistance for her pet housecat, Harvey.

Harvey had wandered from the woman’s residence and climbed up a utility pole in the right-of-way adjacent to her property, getting stuck at the top.

“This was a first for me,” said Cy, of the cat quandary. “It’s a wild coincidence this situation occurred on International Cat Day.”

(Left) A view from the top: Harvey awaits rescue. (R.) Cy carefully approaches Harvey’s pole-top perch.

Adopting a safe approach

While our line crews do not usually keep current on cat-related holidays, they do often listen to the local news within the backdrop of the line shop.

“This customer’s call came in during the middle of the night, and the next morning – while discussing our team’s plan to address the situation – a news segment about International Cat Day came across our television screen,” said Ryan Gilfoyle, Supervisor, Regional Operations Line and Substation. “It was so fitting; you couldn’t plan this any better.”

Whether fated or a fluke, the news segment reinforced the importance of relieving this local feline from distress.

“We wanted to perform this rescue safely and safeguard our team from electrical hazards in the process – and from being scratched or hurt by the cat, should it become agitated or aggressive,” added Ryan. “After a discussion with the customer, we learned Harvey was very docile and domesticated.”

Given that information, the crew decided to enforce a brief twenty-minute outage on the right-of-way, deenergizing the secondary line in question to avoid electrical risk during the rescue effort. Justin and Cy then arrived onsite to respond to the customer’s service request and, after queuing up a utility truck near the electric pole in question, Cy went up in the truck’s bucket. And, within minutes, he was able to physically grab the cat off the pole top for a swift rescue.

“I think Harvey was just ready to come down after being stuck up there for a few hours. He didn’t fight my reach and came right to me,” said Cy. “The homeowner was happy with the result. She thanked us and then quickly took her cat back inside.”