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MOOERS — Pudgemis Xavier didn't want to come down.
In fact, the part Maine coon cat stayed high in that 60-foot tree on St. Johns Road for almost five days.
Jan. 6, Mike Gonyo first noticed the cat, about 25 feet up in the tree in his backyard.
Except he thought it was a raccoon.
Two days later, the Gonyo family found a message on their answering machine — a neighbor's cat was missing, and they realized it was no raccoon in their tree. The kids, Brandon and Austin, called the kitty, but it didn't move. Owner Marissa Ryan, 19, and the Gonyos pleaded with Pudgemis, but he didn't budge.
"We're out there at the bottom of the tree — me, my kids, my husband — yelling Pudgemis! Pudgemis!" said Mike's wife, Tammy, laughing.
That night, the temperature dropped below zero, and when the Gonyos checked on the cat the next morning, they thought the deep freeze had done it in.
"Mike got the (front-end) loader and shook the tree enough to see if (the cat) was still alive," Mrs. Gonyo said.
To their relief, Pudgemis stirred. But he didn't climb down.
CLIMBING HIGHER
So they called for reinforcements. Chazy-based State Police sent a trooper and called the Mooers Fire Department. Meanwhile, Mrs. Gonyo phoned Champlain Telephone Company.
But all efforts were exhausted as the Fire Department didn't have a ladder truck, and neither of the Telephone Company's bucket trucks would extend far enough to reach the cat. And it didn't help that Pudgemis scrambled further up the tree during each rescue attempt.
"All this time, they don't want to scare him or knock him out of the tree," Mrs. Gonyo said. "It was then he decided to go to the very top of the tree, which is 60 feet in the air.
"We were just afraid the cat was going to freeze to death."
Ryan had rescued Pudge as a stray in Plattsburgh and, since then, he had been strictly an indoor cat. Until he got out that cold January day.
"(My biggest worry) was that they were going to have to cut the tree down, because we tried everything," she said. "He just kept running further up the tree. He was definitely scared."
Finally, Mrs. Gonyo called Richard's Tree Service in Rouses Point, which put her in touch with employee Eric Deso. After another subzero night for the treed cat, Deso donned his gear and climbed the tree.
The Chazy man, who started climbing trees during the 1998 Ice Storm, said it was his morals that made him volunteer for the mission.
"I figured, he's been up there five days. They did everything they could."
Deso had rescued cats from treetops three or four times before and found Pudgemis, who will be 2 years old on June 24, by far the most friendly.
"(Usually) they're pretty feisty. They're mean — hissing and scratching. (The cat) just climbed up and up and up a little more."
When Deso got to the top, he put Pudgemis into a pillowcase then brought him back down.
"I was amazed watching (Deso) climb that tree," Mrs. Gonyo said. "I was quite impressed. He did it out of the kindness of his heart."
LOTS OF GRATITUDE
Helping out isn't something new to Deso. Actually, it's a big part of his life.
"(During the Ice Storm) I had a guy that came here to cut the trees and he kind of showed me what to do."
Since then, Deso, who graduated from Chazy Central Rural School in 1995, has traveled to North Carolina; Kansas City, Kans.; Kansas City, Mo.; and Detroit, Mich.; to help out during ice storms.
After the cat had all four paws on firm ground again, he timidly ate a half can of tuna fish in the Gonyos' house.
And even after a couple of weeks' recovery, Pudge didn't quite deserve his name anymore. At about 9 pounds, Ryan said, he was about three pounds lighter than before his ordeal.
"He lost a lot of weight being stuck in that tree," said the recent Moriah Central School graduate.
"I was so afraid he was going to freeze to death and die in that tree," Mrs. Gonyo said, expressing deep gratitude to everyone who pitched in to keep that from happening. "All these people volunteered their time because they wanted to save this cat."
"I'm just glad he's OK," Deso said.
And so is Ryan.
"(Deso) did an amazing job," she said. "I just want to thank everybody that helped, because I don't know what I'd do without my kitty."
— Features Editor Suzanne Moore contributed to this report.
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