Flo's Second Rescue

When I fist rescued Flo, I wondered how long it would be before I would need to rescue her again.  The answer is six days.  When I learned that Flo just showed up a few weeks ago to join Patricia's other cats and that Flo had already been stuck in a tree before I rescued her the first time, I knew the chances were good that I would need to rescue her again.  Fortunately, Flo is the kind of cat I want to rescue more than once.  She is friendly, affectionate and super sweet, and when she climbs a tree, she settles on one of the lowest branches instead of climbing up to the top.  The first time I rescued her, she was only 15 feet high.  This time, she is in a different tree but only 20 feet high.

 It is not very often that I rescue a cat that is friendly but unwilling to go into a carrier.  Even though Flo was interested in the food I gave her and had placed inside the carrier, she would not go inside.  She rubbed her head all over the entrance, and she would put her front feet inside, but that was as far as she would go.  She didn't seem particularly afraid of it; she just didn't want to go in even with the food incentive.

 Since the carrier rescue option was out, I resorted to scruffing her into a bag.  She did not take kindly to that on our first rescue.  Even though she was very friendly to me in the tree, once I bagged her and released her, she was afraid of me after that.  So as I drove to rescue her the second time, I wondered how she would react to me this time.  She now had reason to avoid me, so I was not sure if she would be friendly in the tree this time.
When I arrived, she let me know where she was by calling out to me.  She continued to speak to me while I prepared to climb.  She was not troubled by the commotion I created in the tree above her as I installed my rope.  It was only as I began to climb that I began to hear some distress in her voice, but even that disappeared very quickly and she turned out to be very happy to see me.

 I wanted to give her another chance to go inside the carrier.  I gave her some food, and she readily began to eat it.  When I placed the food in the carrier, however, she didn't seem to care about the food anymore.  She behaved exactly as she did the first time by rubbing her head around the carrier entrance and stepping one or two feet inside, but she would go no farther.  I gave her a few chances to change her mind, but her mind never wavered.  Again, I would simply have to scruff her into a bag.
I scruffed her and bagged her with little trouble.  She did not fuss much or struggle, and once she was settled inside the bag, she was quiet.  She seemed to know that this was the routine for going down.

 Once on the ground, I released her, and she walked out in a relaxed manner.  She wasn't afraid of me this time, so I followed her to her regular feeding place and let her finish the food I had given her in the tree.  She was fine, and after eating and getting settled again, she felt great and was ready to resume her regular routine, a routine that I hope does not include tree-climbing.


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