It Was The Cat’s Meow Treed Feline Gets Sunset Beach Community Scratching For Ideas

Nothing like a cat in a tree to foster a North Idahoan’s peculiar brand of sarcasm.

Ask Mark and Erika Ellingsen, whose year-old Manx named Bug was stuck 50 feet up a pine tree in east Hayden Lake.

While the Sunset Beach couple fretted for three days over the fate of their feline, it seemed like everybody and their cousin had a bright idea for getting the cat down.

“Call Washington state Fish and Wildlife,” one neighbor suggested. “When they get a cat down, the cat stays down.”

“Target practice,” voted another.

Mark Ellingsen’s mother, Lonnie, who lives in the cabin next door, joked that the pudgy Bug was on a self-imposed diet.

Bug didn’t look amused. She occasionally stretched herself out, wandering to a nearby limb, but it was pretty clear she wasn’t budging.

The Ellingsens resigned themselves to letting Bug stay up there until she got hungry enough to come down by herself. They scratched that strategy Thursday morning.

“There was a raven up there after her,” Erika Ellingsen said. “We heard this bird going wild, swooping and pecking at her eyes.”

Fearing the worst, she called Washington Water Power. Who better to fetch her cat than folks who shimmy up power poles?

No dice, utility officials said. WWP only retrieves pets who’ve wandered onto utility property. They suggested the family call a tree service.

A tree trimmer was willing to do it - for $75. His price, however, quickly dropped to $25 when he learned reporters might be there.

By then, word had made it around the Kootenai County Prosecutor’s Office, where Erika Ellingsen works. Sheriff’s Deputy Bob Gomez, who in addition to being a former county animal control officer is a seasoned tree surgeon, caught wind of the Ellingsens’ dilemma.

The family friend volunteered to climb after the cat for free.

“You call that scrawny thing a tree?” quipped Gomez, who arrived at the couple’s home late Thursday afternoon.

He had his tree gaffs with him - two nasty looking steel spikes mounted on leather straps that he confidently strapped around his ankles.

A hundred years ago, Gomez mused, a person could have easily found a logger in these parts with the right tree climbing equipment. Of course, back then they never would have thought about going after a cat.

In his hands, Gomez held a 100-foot rope and a canvas harness to help him climb the tree. Embedding a gaff into the bark, Gomez started up.

“I’ve pulled hawks out of trees, and owls. But mostly cats,” he said, hoisting himself up.

“Ever see a cat swim?” he asked Erika Ellingsen, waiting below near the chilly water.

Just kidding.

With workmanlike efficiency, Gomez stuffed Bug inside a pillow case and lowered her to the ground with the rope. He then rappelled quickly to the ground to shouts of “Way to go, Gomez!” and “Don’t let the cat out of the bag!”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos