Zeek's Second Rescue

It was only two and a half weeks ago that I rescued Zeek from a tree in his backyard, but Zeek did it again. This time, he was stuck in a tree in a neighbor's yard after someone's loose dog chased him there. Fortunately, the neighbor was sympathetic and cooperative and even tried to help Zeek get down. After their efforts failed and Zeek was unable to find a way down on his own, Andy contacted me the next day.

When I arrived, Andy led me to the site where I met the neighbors still working to find a way to help Zeek down. It is always such a relief to me when the property owners are cooperative and welcoming, and that was the case this time. I am always very grateful, because, otherwise, the rescue could not be done.

Zeek was about 25 feet high in the first fork of the trunk of a very large tree and was very cute poking his head over the edge down below. But shortly before I arrived, he moved over to a very long limb that extended outward over some bamboo. Zeek followed that limb all the way out to the end where it dipped downward into the tops of the tall bamboo where he was pretty well hidden (yellow circle in picture). Fortunately, the limb was mostly horizontal, and Zeek could easily walk back toward the trunk of the tree.

I remembered that Zeek appeared to be uncomfortable with the sight of the carrier on his first rescue, so I did not even bring it with me up into the tree this time. He also would not come to me that time until I offered him some food, so I made sure I had both food and the cat bag with me. Hopefully, that would be all I need.

I climbed up to Zeek's limb, and, to my surprise, he immediately began to walk toward me. I could not respond to him right away, however, because I needed first to secure myself to another limb. Once I did that, however, Zeek had changed his mind and walked right back out to the end of the limb. When normal coaxing failed to get him to return to me, I pulled out the food.

Zeek responded quickly to the food and came toward me. For some reason, however, he seemed cautious and would not come any closer than just barely within reach. I tried to get him to move a little closer, but he always resisted. He wanted the food, and I let him have some, but he was not as comfortable this time with my touching him. Several times, he walked away from me and came back when I lured him with the food. I had to spend several minutes there with him trying to lure him closer and let me pet him, but he eventually cooperated enough that I could pull up the scruff of his neck, lift him and pull the bag over him. He didn't fight it.

I took Zeek down and handed him to Andy and his 10-year-old son, Jackson, and they took him home and released him there. Zeek was relieved when he saw that he was back home, so he went to his food and water bowls and filled his belly. Later, he got on his favorite, soft chair and settled in for a serious nap, and Andy took this picture of him and sent it to me. That night, he settled in bed by Jackson and spent the entire night there, so all is well again.