Power to the puss - Dargaville cat climbs 11m of vertical concrete

Mike looked up and wondered why the possum on the power pole looked like his cat. Photo / Supplied

Mike walked outside on Sunday morning, rising early as farmers do, and noticed the cats clustered together staring at the sky.

"I saw the cats looking up the top of the pole and thought, 'it's a possum'. Nothing else could have got up there."

The Dargaville farmer, who doesn't want to be identified, peered skywards for a look at the unfortunate possum.

Looking back was Girlie, a Manx cat.

It's left Mike torn between the implausibility of Girlie scaling 11m of concrete power pole and his clear admiration over a Manx's climbing abilities.

"Manx cats," says Mike, "can get up a pine tree at full speed. You wouldn't believe it unless you saw it.

"They have very sharp, narrow claws but it doesn't matter how sharp your claws are - you're not going to dig them into concrete.

Mike looked up and wondered why the possum on the power pole looked like his cat. Photo / Supplied

"I have no idea how she got up there. It doesn't make any sense."

Getting down was more straight-forward - Mike found a long plank to lean against the power pole which Girlie used to navigate her way down.

At Northpower, the photographs of Girlie-on-a-power pole were greeted with amazement.

One 40-plus year electricity veteran swore that he'd never encountered such a thing despite having spent decades on the front lines.

In that time, there had been no shortage of possums who had met untimely ends. The power company worker's "gut feel" was that cats were smarter than possums and had a greater sense of self-preservation.