Too-Tha

Picture of tree showing where cat was positioned far out on branch.
First of all, yes, Too-Tha is the name of the cat.  It is the kind of name you have to expect when you allow your 3 year-old granddaughter to name your cat, and that is exactly what happened here.  Too-Tha is a sweet, friendly, black female cat that became stuck in this gum tree where I circled her in red.

She was far out on the branch, but since the branch was not too steep and she was a friendly girl, I thought I would have no trouble luring her closer to the trunk where I could reach her.  I climbed up to her branch and stood on it next to the trunk, and while she did not seem distressed or fearful of me, she also would not come any closer either.  I tried to lure her closer with food and water, but she would not come.

I needed to walk out on that branch to get closer to her, but there was very little above that branch that I could use to secure myself while I did so.  I threw one line above me which gave me the ability to go out a little farther, and then I tied my lanyard farther out on the branch itself to counter the pull of the ropes back toward the trunk.  I managed to get far out enough that I could reach close to her with my outstretched hand to get her interested in the food and water.  She did come down just enough to lap up some of the food, but she would not come any farther down that branch to get closer to me.  I was a little puzzled about that since she did not seem very afraid of me, and the branch did not appear to be difficult for her to negotiate even though it was a little steeper at that point.  So I put the food bowl in the back end of a carrier and placed the carrier entrance up to her to see if she would walk inside.  Without any hesitation, she walked right on in.  All I had to do then was close the door, and, without much stress to her at all, I had her safe and secure.  I lowered her to the ground to her waiting family.


Too-Tha resting on doormat of back door.
By the time I got down, Too-Tha had had her fill of water and was resting on her familiar doormat by the back door of the house.  That is when I took this picture of her.  She got up immediately after that, and then we noticed she was limping badly.  She was not putting any weight on her back right leg, and that is when we found a bad looking wound there.  Now I understood why she would not come any closer to me in the tree.  She was simply unable to do so.  We will probably never know for sure what happened to her, but my guess is that a coyote chased her up the tree and managed to get one glancing bite of her leg before she climbed out of range.

The family took her to the vet, and the next day she looked fine.  The wound looked much better, and she was walking without a limp.  She escaped with minor injuries this time.  I just worry about the next time.