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Showing posts from May, 2016

Ollie's Second Rescue

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Ollie did it again.  In fact, he did it three or four more times since I last rescued him out of a tree, but he was either low enough that his family could get him down, or he fell out.  This time, however, Ollie was too high and too stuck.  It took his family a few days to find him, and by the time I got the call to rescue him, Ollie had been in the tree a week.  That is a long time to be stuck in the hot days we have been having, so, even though it was late in the day when I got the call, I rushed over to see if I could get Ollie down before sunset. When I arrived, I found Ollie resting far out at the end of a long branch which sloped downward toward the trunk at a fairly steep angle.  I was not sure if he could walk down the branch toward the trunk at that angle, but he became energized with the activity of his family down below him, and he easily walked all the way down the branch to the trunk.  At that point he was about 25 feet high, and, as long as he stayed there, he should

Allie

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She doesn't have a name, so I will just call her Allie.  Allie is a cute gray tabby girl with white feet and neck, and she hangs out at a large two-story apartment complex.  She does not appear to belong to anyone, but residents Ali and his brother Monsour befriended her and care for her.  They let her inside, feed her and give her some much needed loving and attention, but otherwise, Allie roams freely. When Allie saw a squirrel going up a tree just outside Ali and Mansour's door, she chased after it and found herself stuck about 30 feet high.  Ali and Mansour tried unsuccessfully for days to get Allie down, and it was on the fifth day that they finally found me.  I was concerned about her because five days is a long time to be stuck in a tree with the warm weather we have been having lately.  I rushed over to the site and found her draped over the junction of a few small limbs with her feet dangling limply.  At first I thought she had already died, but then she moved he

Simba

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Simba in an indoor cat, but he escaped out of his house one day and climbed far out on a limb about 35 feet high in the next-door neighbor's tree.  When I arrived late in the day, I found this orange tabby boy draped over some small limbs in a most pitiful fashion.  He had been in the tree for two long, hot and dry days, and he was dehydrated, exhausted and very uncomfortable.  The branch he was on sloped downward toward the trunk at too steep of an angle for him to handle, so he was stuck far out on those small limbs.  In this picture, the branch he is on reaches the trunk just at the bottom right corner of the frame. Simba is a tame boy who is comfortable around strangers, so I was hoping he would be cooperative for this rescue.  Since he was so far out on the limb, I was limited in how far I could go out to him and needed him to come to me at least a little part of the way.  As I set up my climbing line, I had some difficulties and made some noise and commotion as small limb

Phoenix

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Be careful what you wish for.  I had not had a cat rescue to do in over five weeks, so I was wishing for one to do.  I don't wish for cats to get stuck in trees, but for those that do, I do wish to be able to rescue them.  When I got the call to rescue Phoenix, a sweet 6 month old kitten, I was happy to have a rescue to do, and I was glad that my five week long rescue drought was finally over. Phoenix sounded like a model rescue kitty.  She is a sweet, tame, brown tabby kitten that happily greeted strangers, so I expected her to be cooperative for the rescue.  Though she had been born feral, she spent almost all of her kitten-hood in foster care inside with Jenny who had tamed and sweetened her up very well with the help of Loki, an adult male cat.  Phoenix regarded Loki as her mother, and they both bonded as if that were indeed the case.  But Phoenix escaped out the door, and she ran up a tree where she had been stuck for three days before Jenny found me. The tree she was i