Peanut Butter
A young and friendly tortie just showed up at Ashley and Dom's door, and their 10-year-old daughter, Landry, quickly became attached to her and named her Peanut Butter. The cat was a bit of a mystery. The neighbors did not recognize the cat, and no one else has responded to the Found Cat posts on social media. They are an animal-friendly family, so they continued to feed and care for Peanut Butter while they waited for the owner to be found.
Just a few days later, the family took a short trip and returned to find Peanut Butter up in a tree across the street in the neighbor's yard. Peanut Butter was about 30 feet high on a large limb of a tall oak tree. Despite all their efforts, they were unable to coax Peanut Butter down, so Ashley began to search the internet for ideas. That is when she found me and gave me a call.
This sounded like it would be a quick and easy rescue. They were located only 10 minutes from me, and the cat sounded very friendly with strangers. If all goes well, I could be done with this rescue in 30-to-45 minutes. When I arrived and assessed the situation, however, I realized I might have some troubles. There were some power lines running along two sides of the tree. They were only insulated service drop lines, but I still wanted to avoid them as much as possible. Also, in spite of the size and height of the tree, I had trouble finding a suitable place to install my rope.
I had a lot of trouble getting my rope installed, and each attempt caused more commotion in the tree near Peanut Butter and frightened her. She walked out to the end of her limb to get away as far as possible from all my noisy fights with the tree, and by the time I had finished installing my rope, she was in a position directly over some power lines and the street.
I climbed up to her limb, and, from that point, she was so far away I could not even see her behind the foliage. She knew I was there, and, despite her normally friendly nature, she was too nervous to take any chances with me. I tried to coax her to come to me, and the family tried to coax her as well, but Peanut Butter did not budge. After several minutes of failing to convince her of my good intentions, I decided to go out her limb to see how close I could get to her.
The limb showed some signs of rotting about eight feet away from the trunk. The limb was clearly alive and healthy beyond that point, but I could not be sure how strong it was. It was substantial enough that I could put some weight on it, but I secured myself from above to keep at least some of my weight off of it. Once I was in place there, I was just barely within reach of Peanut Butter with my nine-foot extendable pole.
I opened a can of food, put it at the end of the fully-extended pole and reached as far as I could toward Peanut Butter. I placed the food directly under her nose, and, fortunately, she responded to it. She sniffed it and then took a bite. I let her enjoy the food for a few seconds, and then I pulled it along the limb closer to me. Fortunately, she responded by standing up and walking down the limb to the food. I let her have another bite and then pulled the food a little closer. Again, she followed. While there were several times when she changed her mind, turned around and walked away from me, I was always able to get her to come back to the food. It took several minutes, but I eventually lured her all the way to within my reach. At that point, I reached out my hand for her to sniff, but, whatever it was she smelled, she did not like it and turned around and walked away. Again, I had to use the food to lure her back, and this time, I just skipped the usual sniff introduction and petted her on the head instead. She was fine with that, so I set the food down on the limb to let her eat some more while I got my cat bag ready.
She continued to eat while I prepared the bag on my arm. When I was ready, I petted her some more before pulling up the scruff of her neck and lifting her while I pulled the bag over her. She was secure in the bag now, so I took her down to the ground and handed her to Landry who had been anxiously waiting and was now very happy and relieved. The family took Peanut Butter inside and released her there while I packed up my gear.
Later that afternoon, I got this picture from Ashley showing Peanut Butter settled in a laundry basket for a long, comfortable nap. Later, she sent another sweet picture, this one of Landry holding Peanut Butter in her arms. At this point, we are not sure what Peanut Butter's future will be. We don't know if they will keep her or if the owner will be found or if they will find another home for her. But I know Peanut Butter is in good hands right now, and I hope to have an update to this story later.
Just a few days later, the family took a short trip and returned to find Peanut Butter up in a tree across the street in the neighbor's yard. Peanut Butter was about 30 feet high on a large limb of a tall oak tree. Despite all their efforts, they were unable to coax Peanut Butter down, so Ashley began to search the internet for ideas. That is when she found me and gave me a call.
This sounded like it would be a quick and easy rescue. They were located only 10 minutes from me, and the cat sounded very friendly with strangers. If all goes well, I could be done with this rescue in 30-to-45 minutes. When I arrived and assessed the situation, however, I realized I might have some troubles. There were some power lines running along two sides of the tree. They were only insulated service drop lines, but I still wanted to avoid them as much as possible. Also, in spite of the size and height of the tree, I had trouble finding a suitable place to install my rope.I had a lot of trouble getting my rope installed, and each attempt caused more commotion in the tree near Peanut Butter and frightened her. She walked out to the end of her limb to get away as far as possible from all my noisy fights with the tree, and by the time I had finished installing my rope, she was in a position directly over some power lines and the street.
I climbed up to her limb, and, from that point, she was so far away I could not even see her behind the foliage. She knew I was there, and, despite her normally friendly nature, she was too nervous to take any chances with me. I tried to coax her to come to me, and the family tried to coax her as well, but Peanut Butter did not budge. After several minutes of failing to convince her of my good intentions, I decided to go out her limb to see how close I could get to her.The limb showed some signs of rotting about eight feet away from the trunk. The limb was clearly alive and healthy beyond that point, but I could not be sure how strong it was. It was substantial enough that I could put some weight on it, but I secured myself from above to keep at least some of my weight off of it. Once I was in place there, I was just barely within reach of Peanut Butter with my nine-foot extendable pole.
I opened a can of food, put it at the end of the fully-extended pole and reached as far as I could toward Peanut Butter. I placed the food directly under her nose, and, fortunately, she responded to it. She sniffed it and then took a bite. I let her enjoy the food for a few seconds, and then I pulled it along the limb closer to me. Fortunately, she responded by standing up and walking down the limb to the food. I let her have another bite and then pulled the food a little closer. Again, she followed. While there were several times when she changed her mind, turned around and walked away from me, I was always able to get her to come back to the food. It took several minutes, but I eventually lured her all the way to within my reach. At that point, I reached out my hand for her to sniff, but, whatever it was she smelled, she did not like it and turned around and walked away. Again, I had to use the food to lure her back, and this time, I just skipped the usual sniff introduction and petted her on the head instead. She was fine with that, so I set the food down on the limb to let her eat some more while I got my cat bag ready.
