Allie

She doesn't have a name, so I will just call her Allie.  Allie is a cute gray tabby girl with white feet and neck, and she hangs out at a large two-story apartment complex.  She does not appear to belong to anyone, but residents Ali and his brother Monsour befriended her and care for her.  They let her inside, feed her and give her some much needed loving and attention, but otherwise, Allie roams freely.

When Allie saw a squirrel going up a tree just outside Ali and Mansour's door, she chased after it and found herself stuck about 30 feet high.  Ali and Mansour tried unsuccessfully for days to get Allie down, and it was on the fifth day that they finally found me.  I was concerned about her because five days is a long time to be stuck in a tree with the warm weather we have been having lately.  I rushed over to the site and found her draped over the junction of a few small limbs with her feet dangling limply.  At first I thought she had already died, but then she moved her head, and I felt relieved.

I climbed up to her, but because there were no branches above her to which I could tie a rope, I could not pull myself up to her level.  I approached her as best I could from below and had to gradually position myself farther out on her branch to get within reach of her above my head.  Once I was close to her, I could see that her left ear had been tipped which is a sign that she was a free-roaming cat that had been trapped, spayed and returned to her territory.  Typically, these cats are feral, but this one was obviously more tame.

Allie was both welcoming and slightly fearful of me as I approached her.  Sometimes she would walk farther out on her branch, and sometimes she appeared to want to come closer to me.  In time, she came to trust me more and settled down.  I wanted to offer her some food to solidify her trust, and when I opened up the can, her ears immediately perked up, and she came down the branch toward me looking for the food before I was ready to give it to her.  By the time I could present it to her, she changed her mind and walked back up the branch.

I held the food out for her, but now she did not have the interest in it she had before.  I held it just inches in front of her, and she eventually slowly reached a paw out, put it on the top edge of the food container, and slowly tried to pull it toward her.  I didn't let it go, but I was very tickled to see this as it reminded me of the many times I have seen cats try to pull the food bowl away from another cat.  This attempt to pull the bowl to her suggested to me that she wanted the food but was not comfortable being that close to my hand.  With that in mind, I put the food in the back of a carrier and positioned it in front of her.  She pondered this new opportunity long and hard, but just could not bring herself around to sticking anything more than her nose inside.

I worked to position myself a little closer to her and again held out the food for her in my hand.  By positioning the food just under her nose, she finally got interested and cautiously ate a few bites.  Now that she has had a taste of the food, maybe she would be more willing to go into the carrier to get the rest of it.  Again, I put the food in the back of the carrier and positioned the carrier opening in front of her.  This time, she stuck her head inside, then her front feet, and then, after a few moments, her back feet as well.  Now that she was completely inside, all I needed to do was close the door.  I was holding the carrier high above my head, and to get it back down to me in a position where I could get a hand on the door, I first had to weave the carrier around and between some limbs.  I managed to close the door, but I could not reach it well enough to latch it.  By the time I got my hand in position to latch it, Allie pushed the door open and jumped onto another branch.

I put the carrier away because I knew she would not fall for that trap again.  I put my gloved cat bag on and worked to entice her back to me.  This new branch she was on had no comfortable places to rest.  For several minutes, Allie looked all over that branch and in every direction for a better place to go, but the best option in her mind was to walk down that branch toward me and the trunk.  As she came toward me, I reached out my hand and she allowed me to touch and pet her.  With that opportunity, I scruffed her and pulled the bag over her.  I finally had her after an hour in the tree.

I brought her down and turned her over to Ali and Mansour.  They took her inside and released her there where they had plenty of water and food waiting for her.

The video camera gremlins got to me again this time.  I had the camera with me and I even remembered to turn it on.  However, at some point before the rescue occurred, I unknowingly bumped my head into a branch that hit the camera in exactly the right place to turn the camera off.  So while I was able to grab a few screen shots of the cat before the rescue, I have no video of the rescue itself.  Oh well.  Maybe next time.