Kitty's Fifth Rescue
Austin and Erika returned home from vacation to find that Kitty was missing. They live in a new subdivision now, and there are no trees close to their house. They looked all over for Kitty and checked the local shelters, but could not find him. Eventually, it occurred to Erika to drive to a nearby wooded area to see if Kitty might be in a tree over there. All she had to do was call for him, and he lead her straight to him. There he was stuck about 20 feet high in a tree just inside the tree line. It is not clear to the house sitter when Kitty got outside, so we don't know exactly how long Kitty was stuck in the tree. We know for sure only that he had been missing a minimum of two nights.
When I arrived at Erika's house, she lead me by car on a drive to the site. We drove down a long road with a wooded area on one side and a long field being bulldozed on the other. After we drove down the road about a quarter mile, Erika slowed down and eventually stopped. I rolled down my window, and then I could hear Kitty crying. I could not locate him, however, until Erika pointed him out. There he was stuck in a tight fork of a tree with no way to rest without having his body squeezed like a wedge.
The tree he was in had very little to offer me as a climber, and it was set a few feet inside the edge of the woods. Getting to his tree would require some clearing of the brush around it. However, close by at the edge of the woods, was a larger tree that I could use to climb and then pull myself over to Kitty's tree. Little or no clearing would be required to climb this tree, so I prepared to install my rope there.
When I rescue a cat, I am often surprised and annoyed at how noisy the environment happens to be at the time of my rescue. So often neighbors will start up their lawnmowers or blowers, or loud traffic will be constantly passing by, or heavy machinery is being used nearby. This time, it was a bulldozer directly across the street from me working constantly leveling the field there with frequent beep-beep-beep and clunka-clunka-clunka noises. That explains the noise you will hear in the video.Rescuing Kitty is typically easy, so I was not expecting any trouble. But he did get scared a few times when I was setting up, so trouble is always possible. Fortunately, he stayed in place crying constantly and loudly at me as I climbed up to him. When I pulled myself over to his tree to get close to him, he continued to stay in place and cry. We got reacquainted, since it has been nineteen months since his last rescue. I don't know if he remembered me or not, but regardless, he let me pet him and politely acted as if he remembered.
Since he was in such an uncomfortable position, I opened the carrier and placed it in front of him fully expecting him to jump at the chance to get comfortable inside. He looked and almost put one foot inside, but held back. I gave him some more reassurance and presented it to him again. This time, he walked inside. No food was necessary. I closed the door and brought him down. Again, Kitty was an easy rescue.I drove him back to his house where we released him. Just like he always did before, he went to Erika to greet her and then he came to me for a greeting as well. With those formalities out of the way, he was ready to eat. I fed him the can of food I would normally have used to entice him inside the carrier. We added a little water to it to help him get hydrated more quickly. He lapped it all up, and then I left. He will be fine now, and I enjoyed seeing him again.
I wonder if there will be a sixth time.