Unless the tree’s on fire, you won’t likely have much luck getting the fire department to race to a tree with a cat stuck in it.
That’s what resident Barbara Calder found out last week after she came across a distressed kitty stuck about 25 feet up a cedar tree just inside Robert Burnaby Park.
“I called the SPCA and Burnaby Fire Department, both of which were uninterested in helping,” Calder told the NOW. “The non-emergency Burnaby Fire Department line told me, ‘Just leave it up there for a few days; they either come down or they fall out.’”
The SPCA, meanwhile, told her to put a light coloured sheet on the ground under the tree.
“Apparently it gives them some perspective,” Calder said. “It shows them where the ground is or something.”
The cat looked at the sheet and was clearly interested in returning to Earth, according to Calder, but the distance was just too great, she said.
Finally she called the city.
Six city workers and three trucks, including a bucket truck, responded.
“They were in and out in no time at all,” Calder said. “They were very compassionate. The one guy came up and said, ‘Don’t worry. Kitty’s going to be fine.’”
Strategically, the worker in the bucket approached the cat from above.
“If you spook them, they’ll just go higher up the tree,” Calder said.
On the ground, as the frantic feline was being transferred from a bag to a box, it took several swipes at forestry department arborist Graeme Waine.
“The cat was just – holy smokes – you know those old cartoons with the Tasmanian Devil? That’s what it was like,” Calder said.
The cat, a ginger, was taken to the SPCA where it was examined and found to be healthy.
It has since been adopted out since no owner came to claim it.
While not everyone shared her sense of urgency about the kitty, Calder was impressed by the city workers’ response.
“My sister said, ‘Oh, for Pete’s sake, Barbara! It’s just a cat,’ but they handled it so professionally and compassionately,” Calder said. “There are plenty of upsetting things going on in the world, and it’s reassuring that people cared about this cat.”
