Cat on electricity pole caused village to lose power

An Aberdeenshire village lost its power supply for two hours while a cat was rescued from an electricity pole. Two engineers from Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution saved the cat from the top of the 10-metre pole in St Cyrus, after it was stuck there for almost 24 hours. They established they would need to turn off the power supply and use a cherry picker to rescue the cat.



The company said this also prevented damage being caused to the network. Engineers Ian Robertson and Brian Barclay arrived after the firm was alerted by Coco the cat's owners Moira and Bob Moir.Mark Macdonald, from SHEPD, said: "By phoning our emergency service centre, Mr Moir not only alerted us to the plight of his cat but his call also meant that our engineers were able to prevent any damage to our high-voltage network

"This could, in turn, have resulted in a much longer and wider-reaching interruption to supplies in the area. "Hopefully the customers of St Cyrus who experience a short power outage will understand the exceptional circumstances that day, and I'd like to thank our customers for their patience as we carried out the rescue mission." Power supplies in the area were cut off for about two hours during the operation.



"Everyone in the depot is delighted that Coco has made a full recovery, although I heard she was a bit crabby after being stuck up the pole for almost a day," Mr Macdonald said. Mrs Moir said: "Myself and Bob are both very grateful for the work the engineers carried out to allow Coco to come down safely. Thankfully the story had a happy ending, as the outcome could have been a lot worse and we hope Coco won't be climbing any more poles."