ATTLEBORO – Annuki was one cool cat. Make that a very cold cat – as in almost frozen stiff.
The male orange tabby spent the week stuck high in a spindly maple tree during the most brutally cold weather the city has seen in years, before he finally was rescued just before nightfall Thursday.
The Animal Rescue League of Boston plucked Annuki from about 40 feet up the thin but towering tree off Falmouth Street after repeated attempts.
The cat, believed to be 1 1/2 to 2 years old, appears to be fine but is to be checked by a veterinarian today.
“He’s very happy to be out of the tree,” owner Matthew Aod said Thursday night. “He’s doing just fine right now. He’s eating a lot. He came down pretty thin from that tree.”
Aod, of 26 Falmouth St., said he let Annuki out Monday night.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t come back in, and I didn’t hear anything from him until (Wednesday night),” Aod said.
That’s when a neighbor told him they heard a cat in the tree a few houses down, behind Fine Edge Tool on Maynard Street.
“This was the worst week for him to pick to be stuck up in a tree in blistering cold,” Aod said.
Nighttime temperatures plunged into the single digits this week, with wind chills below zero.
Aod said he knew the fire department no longer rescues cats from trees and figured city animal control would only refer him to the rescue league, which he called Wednesday night, learning they don’t perform rescues in the dark for safety reasons.
Mark Vogel, a senior rescue technician with the Animal Rescue League, arrived just before noon Thursday with ladders and other equipment.
“I couldn’t get up where the cat was,” Vogel said. “He was all the way at the top. He hadn’t really moved.”
Vogel called for assistance from another rescue league technican, Danielle Genter.
Genter climbed the tree, and with Vogel’s help brought Annuki to the ground with a catch pole that has a looped rope and a bag.
“The weather has been so cold, we were worried about frostbite and hypothermia,” Genter said. “He was active and alert.”
Neighbors checked in on the rescue attempts throughout the day.
“Everyone was happy,” Vogel said. “It was kind of an all-day adventure.”
“They were organized and knew exactly what to do. It was great to watch,” Aod said of the rescuers. “They’re fantastic. The amount of effort they put in for this cat today really shows they’re committed to their mission.”
How did Annuki end up in the tree?
Genter said cats instinctively climb trees, but “climbing down is a learned behavior.”
The rescuers said cats usually climb trees after getting spooked by something, or are chasing a bird.
The owner has a theory.
“There are a couple of cats in the neighborhood,” Aod said. “The cats give him a hard time. He gets picked on by neighorhood bullies.”
Incidentally, this wasn’t Annuki’s first trip up a tree.
Last May, he was also rescued by the Animal Rescue League.
Aod found out the owner had another cat and couldn’t take care of two, so Annuki became an outdoor cat that neighbors had been caring for. Aod decided to take him in.
“They were going to take him to a shelter,” Aod said of the Animal Rescue League.
The rescue league workers said they are involved in 100 to 150 rescues a year.
Thursday’s rescue was a bit more complicated than usual, Genter said.
“You get ones that last anywhere from five minutes to as long as three days,” Vogel said. “We try to work in steps.”
Vogel recalled at least one cat that died in a tree, and the rescue league workers advise calling when cats get stuck.
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