Canada Day cat rescue brings Coquitlam neighbours together

Coquitlam Search and Rescue marked the Canada Day weekend with not one but two successful rescues — and one of those rescued was more angry than relieved and had to be stuck in a sack to get it safely home.

Aidon Pyne was the rescuer who answered the call Canada Day to rescue a feisty feline named Chairman Meow.

Pyne made a stunning ascent before a crowd of half a dozen worried neighbours and the owner in the Charter Hill Drive area of Coquitlam on Monday morning.

It wasn’t a mountain he climbed — the usual activity of the volunteer organization.

Instead Pyne, an arborist, who has volunteered for Coquitlam SAR for three years, hauled his way up an 85-foot western cedar on Monday morning, using his tree-climbing gear and a sixth sense of how to deal with an anxious cat.

“We did a little dance,” Pyne recalled.

The harrowing adventure had the cat’s owner in an anxious state.  But Meredith Field had faith in Pyne to do the job.

“It was a dramatic rescue,” she admitted.

Just as Pyne got close to the animal, the frisky feline was having none of it — climbing further up the tree, and then jumping a few branches to stay out of the way of his fearless rescuer.

But that was the end of the story. The ordeal started June 24 when Chairman Meow went missing after being chased by a coyote.

“We thought it was gone,” said Field, who said her two children, 9 and 11, were distraught by the thought they wouldn’t see their pet cat again.

But thanks to an intrepid band of neighbours, most of whom didn’t know each other at the start of the search, the little cat was rescued.

Heidi Maddrell who lives a few houses away said she was heartbroken to hear the mewling cries that turned into howls of desperation as the days wore on.

For the first few days, the owners didn’t know what had happened to their pet.

It wasn’t until she started meowing from the top of a tree that the neighbours started putting the story together.

“We went house to house,” said Maddrell, recalling how neighbours tried to find the owner.

Once the Fields were found, attention turned to how to rescue the cat.

The fire department showed up with a ladder truck but firefighters couldn’t reach the stuck cat.

It wasn’t until Maddrell reached out to the Coquitlam Search and Rescue via Facebook that the rescue plans came together.

“These are people I’ve met through community over the last five years,” Maddrell said.

When Coquitlam SAR volunteer Steve Chapman got the message, he contacted Pyne, who agreed to do the rescue.

Pyne showed up the morning of July 1, Canada Day, with his two kids in tow and a gear bag ready to rescue Chairman Meow.

He climbed the tree, cheered on by the assembled crowd, grabbed the cat, cuddled it and put it in the sac for the safe descent, where Chairman Meow was presented to the Field family.

Now that the cat is home — skinnier, hungry and thirsty to sure — everyone is pleased at the results of the successful Canada Day rescue.

Including Pyne, who is happy about a job well done.

“I couldn’t feel better thinking people feel happy that way,” Pyne said.

Out of appreciation, the Field family made a donation to the Coquitlam SAR. 

As for, the second rescue, Coquitlam SAR report that two people were rescued off Mount Beautiful near Buntzen Lake on Sunday, June 30. Talon Helicopters flew two members to the top of the mountain and airlifted them to safety, with the rescue mission successfully completed by 10 p.m. 

 • Note: Coquitlam SAR does not do cat rescues. This was an unusual circumstance, according to the local group, and Pyne volunteered his time.