Nala

Nala is an indoor cat, but somehow, while no one was looking, she quickly managed to climb up a tree in her backyard and get stuck.  She was about 30 feet high, pretty near the top of the tree and near the end of a branch that arched over the next-door neighbor's house.  Patty and Glen tried everything they knew to do to get Nala down, but nothing worked.  When darkness fell, Patty searched for help on the internet and found me.  I agreed to go there first thing in the morning.

The next morning, I drove to Patty and Glen's house in a pretty neighborhood in Mandeville which is about 70 miles away.  When I arrived, I met Patty and Glen, and they took me to the tree that was holding Nala.  Nala is almost three years old and was actually adopted as a kitten by their daughter just before she left home for college.  So while Nala officially belongs to the daughter, it is Patty and Glen who have been raising her along with their two other cats.

Nala was crying to us below with a sweet, pitiful voice, and she did not appear to be disturbed by the activity near her as I installed my rope in the tree.  The tree was made up of two main stems, and I planned to climb up one, move over to Nala's leaning stem, and try to get into position by her branch.  Nala was perched near the end of this long branch, and I would not be able to reach her there.  In order to rescue her, I needed her to walk along the branch toward the stem where I would be.  She had already demonstrated that she could easily walk most of that distance.  If she would do so again while I was there, then I would be able to reach her.

I climbed up the tree and secured myself as best I could by Nala's branch.  She watched my slow progress and stayed in position near the end of her branch.  When I was finally ready for her, I did not have to entice her to me in any way.  She was ready to come down, and she knew I was there to help her.  She walked toward me as far as she could.  I reached out my hand for her to sniff, and she let me pet her.  This was just what I wanted and needed.

I pulled up my carrier and placed it in front of her.  She seemed ready enough that I did not think she would need any food enticement to go into the carrier.  She looked inside and considered it a minute but was a bit hesitant.  That was probably for the best, because I was not in a comfortable position to hold the carrier, especially with her weight in it.  So I got into a better position and offered it to her again.  Again she looked inside and considered it.  This time she slowly walked in, and I pulled the carrier closer to me to close the door.

Normally, when a cat walks into the carrier, I have to get them to tuck their tail inside before I can close the door.  With Nala, that was not a problem, because her tail is only four inches long.  She had a short tail when she was adopted as a kitten, and they don't know if it is due to genetics or an accident.  Either way, I closed the carrier door with no difficulty, and brought her down.

Patty was happily waiting for us below and wanted to take some pictures of us there on the ground.  She took Nala inside and released her there.  Nala acted as if nothing had happened.  She ate a little and walked around as if it was just a normal day.  Patty took this picture of her just minutes after her rescue.

My video of the rescue is mostly unusable because the camera got bumped out of position when I was climbing up the tree.