After talking with his family about his personality, I was hopeful that he would be a cooperative cat. One would expect that his extreme length of time in the tree would make it more likely that he would be cooperative, but with cats one can never be sure. As I climbed up to him, I watched and listened to him to judge his reaction. At times he seemed fine, while at other times he was getting slightly fearful. I gave him time to get used to me, but when I finally reached his level, I could see that he was backing away. After a few minutes, however, he was comfortable enough to sniff my hand. He alternated between caution and hopeful curiosity several times, but he never climbed higher or walked farther out on his branch.

To gain his trust, I opened a can of food for him, and that immediately got his attention. When I held out the food for him, he came to it and started eating, and let me pet him while he ate. I put the food in the back of the carrier and held it up to him. He readily stuck his head in the opening to sniff the food and gradually walked on inside. I shut the door and brought him down. A cooperative kitty makes for an easy rescue.

Ollie stayed very close to his family the rest of the day and night as if he was afraid to ever be separated from them again. After some long and heavy sleeping, he is doing fine, although he is much lighter now. Before he got in the tree, Ollie was a fat boy weighing over 15 pounds, but now he looks like a lean and healthy cat.
I do not have video of the rescue due to a camera malfunction caused by operator klutziness. It seems like I have heard of this happening before. I can show only these few still pictures that I was able to get.