Cat Rescue Guy

You're not going to believe this.  Simba got stuck in a tree exactly one day after his first rescue.  The same tree.  The same branch.  I rescued him the first time on Sunday morning, and on Monday morning he went right back up there again.  And on Monday morning, I went right back out there to rescue him again. Every rescue is different.  Every cat is different, and every tree is different.  Even the same cat in the same tree is different.  Or so I always thought.  In Simba's case, it's the same song, second verse.  His second rescue was just like his first. Since I knew from his first rescue that he didn't like the carrier, I didn't even bring it with me, and since he had been in the tree only a couple of hours, I knew he was not particularly hungry.  This time I planned to bring him down in the bag, but I was open to letting him ride down in my lap again. I climbed up to him and found him just as friendly as the first time.  We visited for a few minutes a

Whenever I get a call to rescue a cat, I always ask the owner how the cat reacts when strangers come into their home.  The average cat will stay in place and watch but not approach the stranger or run away.  The shy or fearful cat will run away and possibly hide.  A friendly, confident cat will approach and greet the stranger.  When I asked Kerry about his cat, Simba, he didn't hesitate to say that Simba always happily greets everybody.  I love hearing answers like that, because it usually means that the cat will be cooperative with me in the tree.  So, when I went to rescue Simba that morning, I was hoping to find a friendly, cooperative cat.  He did not disappoint me. As I drove up the long driveway, Simba was easy to spot in the bare tree at the end of the driveway.  He is a pretty, two year old, blue-eyed flame-point, and he had been in the tree just over two full days.  The first night he suffered through severe thunderstorms, including a tornado watch, and he had more rai

I have a good friend by the name of Bob Reese who is an excellent treetop cat rescuer in Mississippi.  In fact, he is the only cat rescuer in the whole state, and he gets calls to rescue cats all over the state.  He lives in Starkville and is willing to drive anywhere within a three-hour radius to rescue a kitty in need.  Sometimes, however, he gets calls for cats in the southern part of the state that are closer to me than him.  Such was the case when he got a call for a cat stuck in a tree in Brookhaven.  That is a three-hour drive for him and he was having an especially demanding day at work.  Since the drive there would be less than two hours for me, he asked me if I wanted to take it.  Since I am retired, I don't have to take time off work for a kitty rescue, so I was free and able and told him, "yes." After getting all the essential information, I drove there to find a black and white cat perched about 30 feet high in a tree in the front yard of a pretty home.  

The cat rescue business has been pretty busy these past few days.  I have had four rescues in the past six days, and it would have been five rescues if one of the cats had not found his way down on his own during the night.  So it was not much of a surprise when I got the call from Kelly. Kelly told me that there was an unknown cat that had been stuck in a tree for six days in Gonzales.  The homeowner, Debbie, who found the cat in her yard called Cara's House, a companion animal rescue organization for the parish, to see if they could help.  It was Kelly who answered the phone that day, and that call started the search for someone who could get the cat down.  Kelly called the sheriff's office, and they came out to look.  Unfortunately, despite their good intentions, they succeeded only in scaring the cat even higher.  Kelly called several tree care companies, but no one wanted to help.  Eventually, one of Kelly's colleagues at Cara's House learned about it and told

Fitzgerald, or "Fitz," as he is usually called, is a sweet black and white cat that mysteriously disappeared one night.  His owner, Della, looked all over for him but could not find him.  Fitz and Della are very close, and Della was getting more and more distressed as each hour passed without any sign of him.  On the third night of Fitz's disappearance, Della decided to walk down the street calling for him while it was fairly late and relatively quiet.  When she was a fair distance down the street, to her amazement and delight, she heard Fitz respond to her in a frantic voice.  When he heard her voice, he began crying desperately for her.  It took a few minutes for Della to find him in the darkness, but there he was, 15 feet high in a tree at the edge of the street. While Della was thrilled to have found him, she was at a loss to figure out how to get him down.  She tried to coax him down, but little Fitz just didn't know how.  Della loves her Fitz, and she is a d

This is not the first time Marley has been stuck in a tree.  In fact, this is his fourth time, but this is the first time I have rescued him.  He managed to get down on his own the first time.  Another cat rescuer who no longer lives in this area rescued him the second and third times.  So this situation is not new to Marley, but Marley and I do not know each other. Marley's owner, Derek, told me that Marley  is a friendly 4 year old boy, so I was hoping for a quick and easy rescue.  When he told me that Marley  is a Norwegian Forest cat, I knew to expect a long-hair cat, but I was not prepared for the massive amount of hair and fluff I found on Marley.  When I climbed up to his branch, I could see several clumps of his hair that had become stuck in the bark. When I first approached Marley, I found him showing some signs of mild fear as he backed away slightly from me.  Perhaps I climbed too quickly or noisily, or maybe I was just expecting too much from him.  So I slowed dow

No, I didn't rescue myself.  At least, not this time.  What happened was that I went out to rescue a cat that did not yet have a name, and the owner, Hazel, was so grateful, that she named the cat after me. This sweet, orange tabby boy introduced himself to Hazel at Wal-Mart.  He is a very friendly boy, and he simply walked up to Hazel pleading for attention and help.  He sure picked out the right person, because Hazel has a heart of gold and has rescued several cats.  H azel already had her hands full with restoring her flooded house, but she could not leave him there all alone.   She took him home with her with the plan to get him neutered and ready for adoption.  She would give him a name after she took him to the vet, but before she could do so, the little boy climbed up the tree in her side yard and was stuck there. Hazel tried her best to get him down, but he couldn't come down, and she couldn't go up high enough.  The next day, Hazel found me through Facebook a

No, it wasn't a dark and stormy night.  Rather, it was a cold and rainy morning, but still I knew that something ominous lay ahead.  A cold front was pushing through and with it came rain, thunderstorms and a plummeting temperature, while a kitten, probably 4 to 6 months old, was stuck 45 feet high in a tree and getting pelted with rain and cold.  She had already endured her second night in the tree and would not last long in these harsh conditions.  I had to bring her down and get her warm and dry just as soon as possible. The kitten was a gray tabby and unknown to the property owners, Natasha and Tyler.  The kitten had wandered into their yard, and their dog chased it up the tree.  They tried every trick they could imagine to help the kitten come down, but all their attempts failed.  Then a volunteer firefighter friend of theirs told them about me.  Natasha contacted me that evening, and I made plans to go out early the next morning just as the cold front was expected to arri