By Associated Press PUBLISHED: 13:47 EST, 18 March 2014 | UPDATED: 16:43 EST, 18 March 2014 Athena the cat is back with her family after spending three harrowing days mewing from atop a 60-foot power pole in Las Cruces, New Mexico, as her owners prepared for the worst. Citing safety concerns, El Paso Electric rarely scales poles to help animals and had initially refused to rescue the female tabby-mix. So the family considered their options. Among them, David Eason tells the Las Cruces Sun-News, was shooting his 16-year-old daughter's pet to avoid a slow death from thirst or starvation.
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The female tabby-mix likely ran up the pole in Las Cruces, New Mexico, to escape coyotes, which are common the area
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El Paso Electric said they do no not rescue animals from their structures when contact
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After three days of fervent weather conditions, from storms to sun, owner David Eason considered shooting her down
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Finally some linemen shut off the power, allowing Animal Control to use a bucket truck to go up and get her
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A vet was waiting with an IV to give her some much-needed fluids
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Power was interrupted in the area for an hour
When @placeholder was still there on Monday, the calls became frantic.