This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Ogden • Shadow, a 3-month-old kitten, has ended her nearly five-day-long electrical pole sojourn with a leap to safety.
The adventurous feline was discovered stuck up the 50-foot-high pole near 900 Sullivan Road in Ogden on Saturday. Efforts by the kitten's 8-year-old owner and the boy's family to coax it down with tuna and treats failed.
So did requests for help from Ogden animal services, the Humane Society and firefighters, due to the danger posed by the 46,000-volt electrical lines on the pole. Cutting power to the pole was not an option, since that would have left thousands of customers in the dark.
On Tuesday morning, a Rocky Mountain Power employee, Dave Sjoblom, was initially thwarted in rescuing the cat because it was not wearing a collar. That made the insulated extension pole the power company has for such animal rescue cases useless, explained Rocky Mountain Power spokeswoman Maria O'Mara.
Sjoblom returned Tuesday night and this time used the insulated pole to patiently coax the kitten into jumping off the pole and onto the roof of a nearby house.
Soon after, the lineman reunited the pet with its owners.
"It's nice when you can get them down safe," Sjoblom told The Tribune. He added that this sort of issue isn't uncommon and that he has to rescue a handful of pets, mostly cats, every year.
On Wednesday, O'Mara said Rocky Mountain Power had decided to take one additional step to recognize the kitten's rescue.
"We've decided we're going to be making a donation, in Shadow's name, to the Weber County Animal Shelter," she said.