I got the call from Ryan and Kristi, but Peaches belongs to Kristi's grandmother, Betty, who was in the hospital this day. Peaches went missing six days ago, but it was not until this day that they were finally able to find him well hidden in a tree in the next-door neighbor's backyard. Ryan found my website through a web search and called me.
When I arrived at Betty's house, I met Ryan and Kristi, and they took me to the next-door neighbor's fenced-in backyard. There I found Peaches resting in a large branch union of the tree less than 15 feet high. I saw only half of his face as he peered at me from behind a stub. Peaches spoke to us a few times, but was mostly calm and probably exhausted.
Gradually, as I talked with Ryan, I began to see that he had already read everything on my website beforehand. He knew what I was going to say before I said it. I have never experienced a client who was so prepared and pre-educated about the entire rescue process before, and that made it easier and quicker for me. I hardly had to say anything at all.
I picked out a suitable branch well above Peaches where I would tie my rope. I used my big sling shot to shoot a throw-bag attached to string over that branch so that I could use that to pull my rope into position. I listened carefully to see how Peaches responded to this, but he was perfectly quiet and did not move. He did not seem to be affected by it at all. I was encouraged by his lack of reaction, but, unfortunately, I missed my shot and needed to do it over again. This time I hit my target and was pulling the throw-bag back toward me to position it where I wanted when I heard Peaches let out a loud yowl. Now he was scared,and that yowl could be roughly translated to mean, "I'm outta here."
Very quickly, Peaches jumped down to the large branch below him and began to climb head-first down the trunk. He came down only a couple of feet before, as expected, he lost his grip and jumped down to the ground. He was not high at this point, and he handled the jump perfectly fine. He quickly ran back toward his house. Kristi followed him and let him inside.
That was easy -- not only for me, but for Peaches as well. So why did Peaches wait six days to do this? If he had been more bold, he could have managed this same descent on his own on his first day in the tree. But going down is scary, and, just like people do, he put off facing that fear. It was not until I created that commotion above him that he found the courage to go down. His fear of that unknown thing in the tree coming after him was greater than his fear of climbing down, so down he went.Peaches is doing just fine now, and Betty is back from the hospital grateful to be home and to have her Peaches back home with her. They sent me this picture of him afterward, and I am very glad to have it, as I was not able to get any pictures of him myself.