Los Lunas man rescues cat stuck on top of power pole

LOS LUNAS, N.M. – A cat in Los Lunas may have used one of his nine lives when he found himself on a power pole for 15 hours Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. 

Gerry Armijo says “Mookie” is named after the great baseball player, Mookie Betts. 

“He’s a Dodger fan!” said Armijo. 

Armijo found Mookie at work in the hood of a car that needed repairs. Mookie was the only surviving kitty in the litter and barely hanging on to life himself. 

So, Armijo took Mookie home and nursed him back to health.

“My wife was home when I brought him home, and she goes ‘Oh no, not another pet.’ But then she fell in love with him right away, and he actually bonded to her more than me,” Armijo said.

On Tuesday night, after he went missing, Mookie found himself in a tight spot on top of a power pole. 

“It was no relief when I saw him, I looked up there, and I actually said ‘Oh ___’ because I knew that he could have gotten electrocuted, or fallen, or how are we going to get him down? Just another dilemma that compounded the fact that he was missing,” said Armijo. 

Armijo quickly called PNM and put in a work order, but he couldn’t wait for them to get to his house. So he decided to take matters into his own hands. 

“I couldn’t wait, so my mind got into high gear and I started calling around for rental lifts. I was going to go up and get him myself, but my son kept saying ‘You’re going to get killed’ because of the electrical,” said Armijo. 

After a $500 rental and a call-out to his cousin who’s an electrician, the mission to save Mookie was well underway. 

“Well I’ve rescued kittens before, but I always climb the trees to get them, this one I couldn’t climb the pole,” said Ernest Gonzales with E&S Electric Inc. 

Thankfully, no one was hurt. Armijo says Mookie is grounded and won’t be going outside anytime soon. 

“He was up all night, he will probably sleep all day,” said Armijo. 

Armijo’s wife, Diana, just passed away. He says it was no coincidence Mookie was brought down safely.

“We just had her funeral and I guess her blessing was honest because we got him down,” said Armijo. 

PNM crews arrived shortly after they got the cat down. They say you should not try to be the hero in situations like this.

They say one thing you can do is to put food to try to get the animal to come down on its own, or you can wait for trained professionals to arrive to help you out.