Rescued at last! Lochie the cat spent at least four days up a 20 metre tree at Kinloch, Taupō. Pictured with his owner Lorene Blundell. Photo / Sally Mabelle.
Lochie from Kinloch Village spent at least four nights up a tall tree the week before last.
The ginger 1-year-old cat disappeared but then the owner of the tree heard him meowing from on high.
Four days later he was rescued by a crane.
Lochie's owner Lorene Blundell lives 200m away and says she thinks Lochie was chased up the tree by a dog, and then proceeded to climb 20m.
The tree was in Sally Mabelle's garden.
"We heard a cat meowing and wondered where it was. The next day there was more meowing and it sounded as if it came from the forest next door," Sally says.
"Then we saw it, 20m up the tree."
The family has lived in Kinloch for three months and Sally put a post on the Kinloch Families Facebook page. By this time Lochie had been up the tree for two days.
Many people commented on the community page about who the owner could possibly be and Lorene showed up late last Wednesday night. She had been beginning to think she would never see him again.
"We called all the arborists in the phone book but it was nearly 5pm and none of them answered. We rang the fire department but their ladder wasn't long enough," Lorene says.
"Then one of the arborists rang and said he would come first thing the next day. He arrived, took one look at the brambles at the base of the tree and said it would take hours to cut through the brambles and said he would come back at the end of the day."
Lorene thought "I need a crane," and the first crane operator she rang, Wayne Murtagh from Murtagh Cranes, came first thing.
"He had a look, then came back with the right crane, a cherry picker, and a helper, and Lochie was down by 10.30am."
Wayne credits Sally and her family for generously allowing the crane access over their concrete driveway and through their garden, including taking down part of their fence. He had another job on that morning but put it off.
He thought Lorene was having him on when she first rang but pretty soon realised it was a serious situation.
"The other job was important, but I'm a cat person and I would feel pretty crappy if the cat fell out of the tree," Wayne says.
He brought in a little crane with a really long boom and says the cat was 24m up the tree, just one metre from the top.
"There was no way the cat could have slept while it was up there, it was among the little thin branches".
Many people were concerned for the cat and Sally says there was an outpouring of support from the Kinloch community and a big cheer when Lochie was finally rescued.
Lorene says she had to pay for the crane but says the end bill was for a lot less than was originally quoted.
She says Lochie was "absolutely starving" and so exhausted from his adventure that he slept solidly for two days.
Lochie and his sister Kina are rescue cats. Lorene spotted them crossing Kinloch Rd without a mother cat in sight when they were just 8 weeks old. Community Animal Rescue and Education (CARE) Taupō founder Helen Rabinska helped Lorene catch the kittens and then rehabilitated them.
Lorene says this is the first time Lochie has ever had an adventure. His meowing before he was rescued was heartbreaking.
"He was going 'meow, meow' and it was as though he was saying 'help me, help me'."
Lochie is soon to move with his family to a lifestyle block on Tukairangi Rd. Lorene says he has made a full recovery from his adventure and would like to thank everyone who provided support.
'I feel confident knowing ... he’ll never be able to work for emergency services again.'