Community comes together to save a stuck kitten

Residents of Slovo, Mabopane recently came together to perform a Christmas miracle when a kitten was rescued from an electrical pole after being stuck for six days.

Several community members had attempted to contact various organisations when the cat was first noticed last week though to no avail.

Resident Raymond Mogane, a brave community member and experienced rigger, contacted the Soshanguve Animal Shelter and Education Centre NPC and they attended to the scene on December 24.

Founder and managing director of the Soshanguve Animal Shelter and Education NPC, Inspector Tebogo Maredi says that they had exhausted all options in hopes of retrieving the kitten before calling emergency services.

“We ended up having to call the fire brigades but when they got there, we had to wait for four hours for Eskom to switch off the electricity on the pole where the kitten stuck. We waited for Eskom until 22:00, they kept telling us that their technicians were on the way. I left later on, and then [went back] on Christmas Day because I couldn’t even sleep, I was worried about the cat, early in the morning, around six. We called the fire brigades out as well as Eskom, but they only got there around 17:30 in the afternoon. By 20:30 we managed to get the fur baby off of the pole,” said Maredi.

Maredi says that it was challenging getting the festive feline off of the pole because the transformer was tampered with, and various wires around the box made it unsafe for firefighters to retrieve the cat.

When Eskom technicians arrived, the parties were faced with another problem when the ladder brought to rescue the cat was not long enough to reach the pole. At this point, Raymond Mogane entered the story.

“The gentleman that actually called – Raymond – volunteered to go up the ladder, because he has rigging experience and attire as well as harnesses. So he went up the ladder and managed to get the cat. When he was halfway down, I got the cat into the cat trap so she couldn’t escape. Afterwards, she was taken to Olympus Animal Clinic at around 23:00 on Christmas and they treated her, everything was fine and she stayed overnight,” said Maredi.

Maredi fed the cat a small portion of tuna when rescued, careful not to overfeed the cat as it was dehydrated and starving for six days, whilst enduring heavy rainfall.

At Olympus, the kitty found a new mother when Dr Jamie Taylor adopted the feline. “I was very happy to see the cat come down safely. I and our staff were there the whole time to make sure she didn’t fall from that pole. It was a very beautiful rescue that went perfectly,” she said.

The Soshanguve Animal Shelter and Education NPC is a fully registered PBO charity and offers an 18a certificate upon request for donations. Residents can also donate to the shelter by using Takealot courier deliveries using their physical address, Plot 139 Kolgans Street, Onderstepoort, 0110, Pretoria, Gauteng.

For more information visit, www.soshanguveanimalshelter.org.za or contact Tebogo Maredi on 0823427905.

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