Shady defied efforts to lure him down from Friday morning until late Monday afternoon, then descended on his own. (CBC)

A cat that had been up in a tree since Friday morning in Waverley, N.S., just outside Halifax, has finally decided to come down.

Late Monday afternoon, the year-old black feline named Shady jumped to the snow below the tree and ran off into the bushes, leaving owner Tina Ashley to hunt for her pet in nearby woods.

Shady rejected three rescue attempts by firefighters and only climbed higher — about 18 metres up as of Sunday, according to Ashley.

Ashley tried tempting Shady to come down by putting food partway up the 20-metre-high tree in her neighbour's backyard and even attempted to remove the cat with a pole. But nothing worked and Shady spent most of his time yowling from on high.

"We've tried whatever we know to get him down, and the fire department has tried and it's just nothing that we've tried is working … but I just don't think he's going to make it through another night," she said.

The temperature dropped to about –8 C in parts of mainland Nova Scotia Saturday night.

As each night approached, Ashley's granddaughter Olivia became more worried, listening to Shady's cries.

"I think he might stay up there for like a long, long time and never come down, or he might die up there, or something like that, or I don't know if he's going to come down or not," the young girl said.

Still, Kristin Williams, executive director of the Nova Scotia SPCA, didn't think there was any cause for concern. She has never heard of a case where a cat died because of being stuck in a tree, she said.

"It's quite likely that the cat is actually coming down when there is nobody around to actually see this happening," Williams predicted on Sunday, adding that Shady might remain in the tree for some time before descending.

'Very typical'

"It's very typical because cats are nocturnal by nature, to be very active at night and during the day to rest and relax. So where we are more apt to wonder what they're up to, we're of course doing that during daylight hours and the cat's activity is much more reserved for night."

The SPCA doesn't respond to cats in trees. Halifax animal control is not mandated to deal with cats, let alone cats in trees. And the fire department is not required to, either, since it's not considered an emergency.

Nevertheless, fire crews visited the house with a ladder three times, twice on Saturday and again on Sunday, trying in vain to coax the cat from his perch.

Ashley, meanwhile, said her family's life was disrupted.

"We don't really sleep," she said. "Like, I mean, you're awake and somebody's always wandering out underneath the tree, seeing if he's still alive."