Cat Rescue Guy

At the insistence of her four-year old children, Mary Jo adopted a cute, orange-tabby kitten and brought him into their home.  They named him Francis, and this sweet, playful fur-ball settled in very nicely.  Five years later, the family moved from their home in Texas to Baton Rouge, and, of course, Francis came too.  Unfortunately, Francis escaped out of his new house and got lost in this strange, new land.  The family searched for him for a very long time but could not find him.  Three months later, while taking a walk in the neighborhood, Mary Jo saw him in the driveway of a home a half mile away.  She couldn't believe her eyes.  She talked to the woman who lived there and learned that Francis just appeared there some three months ago, and the woman kindly took care of him and gave him a place to call his own.  Mary Jo took him back home with her and reunited him with the family, and Francis settled in and gave them no more trouble.  Unt...

Fulvia (sounds similar to Sophia with accent on second syllable) is a sweet, young gray tabby girl who was rudely chased up a tree by some loose dogs.  After she climbed the tree, she jumped onto the roof of the house immediately next to the tree.  She escaped the dogs, but now she was stuck on the roof and had no way down.  She was stuck there for three nights before her owner found me. I went over there and found Fulvia crying constantly for help while she paced along the roof of a one-story house.  Since she wasn't high and was in familiar territory, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to give her a ramp to walk down.  I strapped two 12-feet carpeted boards together to make one ramp about 20 feet long.  I propped one end on the edge of the roof and let the other end rest on the ground.  The angle of the ramp was gentle enough that any cat should easily be able to walk down head-first. Fulvia immediately took note of this new ramp...

When Lindsey told me that her cat, Maybelline, was stuck in a tree again, I immediately flashed back to the painful memories of her first rescue which was difficult and frustrating.  It was to be my third rescue in that one day, and the previous one had been very difficult and long and left me pretty drained.  If Maybelline had been cooperative, it would have been an easy rescue, but she was afraid and went to extremes to avoid me.  I was unable to rescue her before it became too dark, and I had to return the next morning.  Again, she avoided me, and when she walked out too far to the extreme end of a branch, she overwhelmed the ability of the tiny limbs to hold her weight and fell to the ground. At Maybelline's first rescue, I was expecting her to be friendly.  At least this time I know in advance to expect her to avoid me and can plan the rescue accordingly.  While I always strive to prevent a cat from falling out of the tree, I am especially challeng...

Meet Tanner.  He is a very sweet, laid-back tuxedo cat who is about 7 months old.  Of course, after being stuck in a tree for five days, it is difficult to have enough energy to be anything but laid-back.  He is an indoor cat, but somehow got across the street and up 30 feet in the neighbor's Tallow tree where he got stuck.  Amy and Ron asked all over for help to get him down, and they got all the usual bad advice from the ignorant, dangerous masses that Tanner would come down when he was ready.  What this bad advice accomplished is a delay in Tanner's rescue and more suffering not only for Tanner but also for Amy and Ron.  Fortunately, they called CARA's House for advice and were referred to me. When I arrived, I met Amy and Ron and they led me across the street to the large Tallow tree that held Tanner.  Tanner was in the topmost crotch of a vertical branch, so there was nothing above him I could use to install my rope.  Instead, I instal...