BANGOR, Maine — A cat with a penchant for climbing a tree near the intersection of Garland and Grove streets over the past several days has drawn a lot of attention from passers-by and prompted Bangor firefighters to ask that residents call someone else.

Bangor Fire Captain John Prentiss said the fire department has taken more than a dozen calls in the past four or five days from people who have seen the cat in the tree. Some who have called in assumed the cat had been in the tree the whole time, according to Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards.

However, Prentiss said Tuesday morning that the cat has been pulled out of the tree more than once over the past few days but keeps returning. Edwards said the police department has received at least three calls about the cat.

Prentiss said the fire department isn’t the best place to report the chronic climber.

For the past couple of years, Prentiss said, it has been the fire department’s policy not to respond to reports of a cat up a tree.

“We honestly were starting to get so many calls … it was tying up our resources,” Prentiss said, adding that the fire department usually refers cat-related calls to another agency.

“Anytime someone calls here, we ask them to call either the Bangor Humane Society or the Bangor animal control officer.” (Nick McCrea, BDN)