No catastrophe Half of town sees power cut after cat’s pole adventure
HALF a Cotswold town’s power had to be cut off so rescuers could save a kitten that had climbed up a live electricity pole.
The electricity running through Stow-on-the-wold had to be cut off to save one-year-old cat Gryffyndor.
Gryffyndor was rescued by electricity board engineers after spending eight to ten hours up the ten-metre pole.
The adventurous cat was brought down just after midnight on Saturday, May 22.
Her owner, Verity Edwards-flaherty, said her family noticed Gryffyndor had not touched her food that day.
It was not until 8.30pm that she was spotted on top of the pole by Verity’s ten-year-old son Connor.
Fire crews were called out about two hours later, but they soon called for Western Power Distribution to attend due to the dangerous nature of the wires.
The power line was then turned off for about five minutes for Gryffyndor to be brought down safely.
Verity, 37, said from now on, Gryffyndor would be strictly a house cat.
She told the BBC: “I don’t think the firefighters had seen it ever. Obviously trees yes, that would have been a lot easier.
“But literally this was such a huge risk – to her, us and the firefighters.
“Everyone seemed to be very happy to get her down. All the neighbours were out, and they all didn’t mind which was great.”
After her son told her Gryffyndor was stuck up a pole, Verity thought she’d simply get a ladder and fetch the kitten.
But she soon realised the pole was far taller than she anticipated and riddled with high voltage wires.
Verity added: “One of my neighbours is an ex-firefighter so we asked him for his sort of input.
“He said, ‘I wouldn’t go up there because it’s live wires – it’s not safe to do it.’”
She added: “The more and more we were sort of going along the more dangerous we realised it was.
“And if you touch two wires at the same time it could not be a good ending for her – so it was very worrying for us all. It was actually the electricity board – Western Power Distribution – that got her down in the end because they were the only ones able and equipped to turn off the electrics to make it safe.
“The firefighters all have metal ladders which could have conducted electricity and caused a huge risk to them as well.
“So, we had to wait and sadly turn off half of Stow’s electric to get her down safely – but they all seemed to be very understanding of the need to do it, so we were very grateful for them as well.”
Verity said how relieved the family were to have Gryffyndor back on solid ground, adding that she’s a wonderful companion to son Connor who suffers with anxiety.
“My son has got anxiety and she’s one of his wellbeing animals so she’s very precious to us,” she said. “She actually goes to school in the car with him if he’s worried.
“She doesn’t really go out anyway – she spends most her time on the radiator – so we’ll try and keep her on the radiator more from now on.”