Cat Rescue Guy

Becky already had enough to worry about.  Her home was one of the many thousands of homes that had been impacted by the recent flood that devastated so much of this area.  She was working to tear out all the damaged drywall and pile it in front of her house along with all the other ruined furniture and debris.  She didn't need to have her cat, Spike, get stuck in a tree and give her more to worry about. Becky found out about me through Cat Haven, a local cat welfare organization where she volunteered.  When she called me in the late afternoon on Spike's fourth day in the tree, I had just finished mowing my yard and was already tired and dehydrated, but I did not want to keep Becky and Spike waiting any longer.  After I cooled off and had a bite to eat, I went out there and drove down her street which was lined with flood debris in front of almost every house.  There I found Spike resting about 15 feet high in a pine tree that was covered with assorted vines. Spike had a f

Hippy did it again.  When I went to rescue him the first time he got stuck in a tree, he was very decisive and had no intention of letting me get close to him.  He tried to jump down to the next branch, but a small limb threw him off course and caused him to fall all the way to the ground.  The second time he got stuck in a tree, it was during a terrible flood that seriously affected his own family territory.  This time, he fell out of the tree, probably while sleeping, and landed with a splash in the flood water below. This third time he was chased up the tree by some loose dogs, and, again, it was during another terrible storm system that was flooding a large area of the southern part of the state.  He had been in the tree for two nights when I got the call to rescue him, and he had already endured some of the worst weather this area has to offer.  The rain had been heavy and almost constant, and the lightning storms had been violent and terrifying.  Through it all, Hippy stayed

This was a totally different kind of rescue -- so different that I originally had no intention of including it here with my other rescues.  This was not my typical cat-stuck-in-a-tree kind of rescue, though cats and a tree are certainly involved.  What made this case different was that there was a whole litter of kittens involved, and they were stuck, not in a tree, but on the roof of an abandoned car wash building. The car wash had not been used in a long time, but the building was otherwise sound.  It was situated on the back corner of the lot of a busy and well-managed, modern gas station and store immediately adjacent to the back of the parking lot of the McDonald's restaurant next door.  Behind the car wash was a large parking lot for a large strip mall.  All these businesses were located at the intersection of a major thoroughfare and a major four-lane highway in a busy commercial part of the town.  This is not a safe place for a cat to try to make a living, but there t