this bobcat clawed its way to the top of a power pole

May 17, 2019 11:27 AM

Bobcat perched atop electrical pole on Alligator Alley crawls down to safety [Fort Myers News-Press, May 9] "How did the bobcat get to the top of the power pole? It climbed there, of course, sometime Thursday along Interstate 75 in Collier County near mile marker 78."
posted by readinghippo (17 comments total)

I'm impressed that this cat knows how to climb down. My cats always try to come down head first, results are not good.
posted by charlesminus at 11:32 AM on May 17, 2019 [2 favorites]

I have never seen a cat skeleton in a tree, and I have never seen a bobcat skeleton on a power pole.

Years ago I had a cat who would get on the roof of the garage, and cry like he could not get down. After many rounds of this I got tired and became slower and slower about rescuing him. At which point he got bored and either stopped going up there, or he figured out how to get down on his own.
posted by elizilla at 11:42 AM on May 17, 2019 [8 favorites]

Good kitty.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:43 AM on May 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

Florida Cat
posted by hypersloth at 11:52 AM on May 17, 2019 [7 favorites]

How did the bobcat get to the top of the power pole?

And why?
posted by East14thTaco at 11:57 AM on May 17, 2019 [3 favorites]

Why climb the pole? For the view, of course.
posted by Midnight Skulker at 12:18 PM on May 17, 2019

Cat does cat stuff, film at 11
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:24 PM on May 17, 2019

"encouraged"
posted by srboisvert at 12:36 PM on May 17, 2019

How did the bobcat get to the top of the power pole?

And why?

I live in Lee County, FL. If I could climb up a power pole to get away from all the fucking idiots people on the ground, I'd be sitting right next to Mr. Robertcat.
posted by Fiberoptic Zebroid and The Hypnagogic Jerks at 12:38 PM on May 17, 2019 [5 favorites]

Related: These guys are in my area and I follow them on Facebook because it's good to have a little happy story on my feed regularly. They don't do utility poles, though, and I'm not sure they would do bobcats. ;)

Canopy Cats Rescue
posted by diane47 at 2:24 PM on May 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

This seems to lend itself to some kind of folksy saying along the lines of "More nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs."

In this case, it would be something like: "Twitchier than a Florida bobcat on an Alligator Alley power pole."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:34 PM on May 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

"Create a presence" is Fish and Wildlife Biologist for "poke it with a stick".
posted by crush at 4:03 PM on May 17, 2019 [6 favorites]

I used to have a VP who liked to use the phrase "a turtle on a fencepost" but I think I'm going to start using "a bobcat on a light pole".
posted by jferg at 4:38 PM on May 17, 2019

"Create a presence" is Fish and Wildlife Biologist for "poke it with a stick".

“And you kind of create a presence and the bobcat just kind of got down on its own.”

So good.
posted by zeek321 at 4:47 PM on May 17, 2019

I hardly think it wouldn't have come down on its own.

As Cormac McCarthy's Ed Tom Bell says, "I haven't seen a lot of dead cats in trees."

How is this news?
posted by dobbs at 6:18 PM on May 17, 2019

Only in a "slow news day" context.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:22 PM on May 17, 2019

I used to have a cat that did this! Just randomly you'd look outside and he'd be on top of the pole just chillin and enjoying the view I guess (or maybe getting a better view of all the vermin potential snacks in the fields). Never saw him climb down but he did somehow.
posted by LizBoBiz at 2:21 AM on May 20, 2019