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Posted by Tim Behle (Member # 209) on January 07, 2004, 07:14 AM:
From time to time, in my job as a Troubleman for the Electric Company, I get a call to “rescue” a cat from a pole. Last Monday evening happened to be one of those times.
I hate those calls. I don’t have anything against cats, but it is generally a no-win situation for me. Cat’s can and will jump from high places and not be injured at all. They will also scratch, claw and bite when scared, and being lifted from a pole scares them. Having ten pounds of pissed off fang and claws while maneuvering 40’ above the ground is no fun. Plus someone always has to break out a camera, so that everyone can use their hindsight and professional Armchair knowledge of how you should have done your job.
But Monday night, a little after four, I got the call. I admit it was no accident that I didn’t get there until after five. I was hoping the cat would climb back down. But that wasn’t my luck. At least when I got there, there wasn’t a crowd gathered to watch. The cat was lying on some wires just under the transformer. These were a newer, insulated type of wires. The cat was a safe laying on them as he would have been laying on an extension cord in your front room. The cat was happy as could be, soaking up the evening sun rays. And he was Purring! He was happy to be there. Unfortunately, I had to remove him from his happy nest.
I made my way up above him in my bucket, and then lowered myself to him. I always try to get above him, from a distance, and then lower myself along the pole. If the cat gets scared and tries to leave, he will usually go down to get away from me. I got to him and he just laid right there. I talked to him for a minute and he just stayed put, gently purring and watched me though squinted eyes. I stroked his fur a few times and he seemed to enjoy my company, so I reached under and began to scoop him up. He didn’t like that, at all! He spun around, and with claws extended, nearly snatched the glove off of my hand.
Then to my fear, he started climbing. He missed the 7,200 volt wire leading into the transformer by inches. Went straight to the top of the pole and sat there hissing at me. At this point, I could hear voices in a couple of yards around me, not a good thing.
I went back down to the truck and picked out an insulated pole and some flat line. Flat line is like string, only about ¾” wide. I made a noose and carefully attached it to the pole. Going back up, I stayed back from him until I was at his level, and then slowly moved in to where I could reach him with the pole. The danger of doing this was not only the two 7,200 volt lines I was in between, but the fact that the cat was likely to jump. Not something you wanted him to do with a family down below watching.
I slowly slipped the noose over his head and down to his shoulders. Cats have a very weak neck. If you put the noose only around the cat’s neck, he will invariably spin around fighting it and break his own neck. I tightened the noose around his shoulders and when he flexed up to fight it, I lifted him off of the pole.
Everything was going perfect. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was as I started to the ground with the cat. However, after only a few feet of decent, the cat got his rear feet to the pole and with a big push, I could only watch as he pulled himself free, still thirty feet above the ground.
But luck was with the cat, is a weird sort of way. He happened to be directly over a trash can someone was cleaning, that was left half full of water. Direct hit! The column of water rose 10-12’ up in the air, followed closely by a fat, water hating Tom Cat.
The cat landed on the pole and started a mad scramble back up. I swung the end of my hot stick over to block his progress up, but my timing was off. Instead of blocking him, the end of the stick caught him in the shoulder and knocked him off of the pole and into the yard next door.
Up to this point, in that yard, had been a large German Shepard sized dog, who since my arrival, stood under the pole making as much noise as a big dog could. Half a second after the cat left the pole, the dog had a new hat. I don’t know which of them was more surprised. The dog shook him off and ran to the side. The cat made two attempts to scale a six foot concrete wall, nearly making it both times, before deciding to duck under the gate a foot away. Clearing the gate, the cat made a hard right, and started right back up the pole. Seeing me still above him, the cat jumped off of the pole. Bumping into, and nearly falling back into the trash can full of water. He barely cleared the top, hit the ground and made his way down the alley.
Getting to the street, he forgot to check for traffic and made a ninety degree hard left turn less than a foot from the front wheel of an oncoming car. Last seen, the very wet, mad cat was heading South on Lewis just as fast as he could go.
If a cat truly has nine lives, that was must be getting short on spares.
Posted by adkguide (Member # 143) on January 07, 2004, 08:50 AM:
Great Story, Tim.
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on January 07, 2004, 04:11 PM:
Yeah, great story....I just hope some wise guy doesn't ask if you got it all on video. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Good hunting. LB
Posted by Barndog (Member # 255) on January 07, 2004, 05:18 PM:
Awsome story,
Use to sleep out on the trampoline with my little brother when I was a kid, one night a stray cat was on the fence and the dog wouldn't let him down. So I had my little brother hold the dog while I got the cat off the post, I made it half way across the yard when I heard "I'm sorry". my brother had let the dog go. After I got the cat off my head the cat headed straight for the trampoline. We slept the rest of the night inside. My head looked like a permenant scratchin post for about two weeks.
Tim they should pay you hazard pay. I know I wont mess around with another cat. Good job with keeping calm in front of a crowd.
Posted by Cdog911 (Member # 7) on January 07, 2004, 06:30 PM:
Tim,
Great story. I'm picturing the entire ordeal and just laughing here. Made me recall this cat I saw one time. I have this old friend I used to run coonhounds with who bred and trained treeing walkers (I ran English and refuse to capitalize either part of the breed's name. ) Anyway, he had upwards of three dozen dogs chained out in his backyard on any given day and he lived in this little town about 30 minutes from me. Right smack dab in the middle of his dog yard, totally surrounded by hounds, is a lone telephone pole with the yard light on it. Late one night, this mangey old housecat apparantly was sneaking thru the minefield when someone woke up. Seeing that pole, he went up it and was the immediate focus of all those hounds who, by then, were barking treed all to hell. All night long, those dogs carried on. By morning, the dogs were sleeping. That cat supposedly tried to make his way down a couple times, only to get things all stirred up again. Far as I know, there's a skeleton atop that light pole where that cat just died of starvation or old age, 'cause those dogs sure weren't gonna let him down from there in one piece.
Again, great story.
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on January 07, 2004, 07:53 PM:
Lance,
my old partner had a few hounds, Plotts, redbones, and some kind of (W)alker? He had a good sized fenced yard, and I dropped in one day and he showed me this "dirty wet towel thing" his dogs had been playing with. Seems that this neighbor cat had got into the yard, got discovered, and climbed a huge Joshua Tree he has back there. After a spell, he thought the coast was clear, but it wasn't. Pat sure thought it was funny as hell.
Tim, a couple years ago, there was two linemen close to where I work (Baldwin Park) that fried setting a transformer on a 60 footer. One in the air and the grunt both wound up extra crispy. The coroner left him up there most of the day while he did his investigation. But, I always wondered what could have gone wrong? Never heard anything about it, afterwards. I think it was 34,600VAC? What a way to go. Be careful out there, buddy!
Good hunting. LB
[ January 07, 2004, 07:55 PM: Message edited by: Leonard ]
Posted by Locohead (Member # 15) on January 07, 2004, 09:36 PM:
A few years ago one of my guyswas moving a 40' ladder and it started falling. The guy tried to straighten it out when he hit the power line. He would have been dead for sure but he was only electrocuted for the few seconds it took the ladder to slide off of the powerline. He survived okay but he did lose a few toes because the bones were darn near ash. The soles of his tennies melted to the concrete and I could also see the rubber from the ladder's feet burned into the concrete as well. The amazing part to me was the 10 - 15 holes in each foot print. It appeared as though someone had taken a drill and made all of those holes straight through the concrete down about 6"-8".
WOW!!! I stay far, far away from anything containing too much juice!!!!
Posted by Locohead (Member # 15) on January 07, 2004, 09:41 PM:
OOOPS! I didn't mean to be so self absorbed! LOL
Tim, that really was a great story! I loved the part about how yoou misjudged the timing a bit and you whacked the cat into the next yard! LOL ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Posted by Crow Woman (Member # 157) on January 08, 2004, 03:18 AM:
Tim... The next time you post something like this, I would appreciate if you would issue a warning first, like... "Do Not Be Drinking Hot Beverages Setting Close To Your Computer Screen While You Read!"
LOLOLOL... Sorry at your expense, but that was hilarious!
Posted by Rich Higgins (Member # 3) on January 08, 2004, 04:51 AM:
Tim is a tall, lanky outdoorsman, kinda like Gary Cooper. He doesn't get too excited about things and always has a little smile on his face and a little chunk of chew under his lip. That will help you guys with the visual.
Posted by Tim Behle (Member # 209) on January 08, 2004, 07:12 AM:
Leonard,
That was more than likely a 34,500 volt line. They are fairly common. They run 19,900 volts Phase to ground. Only a few places use that voltage for Distribution in the US, although it is the common primary voltage in Mexico. Most places in the US only use them to feed, or tie Substations together. Most of the Electric chairs, when the US penal system still used them, only used 2,500 Volts.
Just guessing, but it sounds like the accident was probably caused by the third lineman. ( Line crews are generally 3 or more men ) Sounds like they had the boom extended above the primary, probably had one transformer on the ground and were in the process of hooking up the new one to the line to hang. If the boom operator moved the boom to make it easier to pick up, and hit the wires, anyone touching the boom line ( the man guiding it from the pole and the man hooking up the transformer ) would have been energized to 19,900V. The man on the truck would have also been energized, but since he was not touching the ground, he probably never felt a thing. I'm betting also, that there were a BUNCH of safety rules broken in that accident.
That's one of the reasons I like working as a Troubleman. I work by myself. Takes away lot of the worry about what the other guy is doing.
I was fixing a Streetlight in that same neighborhood last night, an old man came out to talk to me. He asked "Weren't you that fellow getting that cat off of the pole in the alley the other night?" I replied that I was and he simply asked, "Why didn't you just shoot the damned thing?"
Carrying a varmint rifle has always been one of the things I ask for. But they keep pointing out what a PR nightmare it would cause.
Posted by Barndog (Member # 255) on January 14, 2004, 01:36 PM:
Tim how do you get a bear off the pole?
If the picture doesn't work try this link
http://www.geocities.com/slfkc/bg.index.html
Under bear on pole
[ January 14, 2004, 02:35 PM: Message edited by: Barndog ]
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on January 14, 2004, 04:42 PM:
Barndog, when you click on "reply" and the page comes up, on the extreme left, under "message" you will note that HTML is not enabled. For an explanation of UBB code, see FAQ.
Good hunting. LB
Posted by Cdog911 (Member # 7) on January 14, 2004, 06:26 PM:
Tim,, As a letter carrier, I wonder much the same thing about dogs and me carrying a 9. Pepper spray is for wussies and I've learned to HATE dogs. I always hear the same thing.. "My dog won't bite." (Say with a high-pitched whiney nasal voice). I had one guy tell me that, so I looke at him and said, "If it has teeth on one end and an ******* on the other, it'll bite."
Posted by bucksnort (Member # 202) on January 14, 2004, 06:32 PM:
Cdog911, I agree with you. I worked as a telephone installer for 5 years, and I have seen them all. The worst of them all, are those little "weiner dogs." Those little bastards will take a big hunk out of your knee cap in a heart beat.
Take care.
Posted by Tim Behle (Member # 209) on January 14, 2004, 06:46 PM:
Barndog,
Looks like the bear found his own way off! Just a simple matter of replacing the fuse and calling Fish and Game to pick up the body.
Lance,
I hear ya! I've had people tell me that, then get mad at me after I got bit for telling them if the dog does it again, I'd kill it.
I never played football, but I can kick a pretty good field goal. I got "Spoken to" by the boss a couple of years ago for removing a Chihuahua from my leg and leaving it on the customers roof. I didn't hurt it, but I needed to put him someplace, and he couldn't bite me again from up there. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Posted by Jack Roberts (Member # 13) on January 14, 2004, 08:10 PM:
That bear pic just proves what your mother always told you, "Don't mess with primary." And 480 can do a fair imitation.
Jack
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