Simba's Seventh Rescue
Simba is such a cool cat. I'm sure there must be something that will upset him, but I have never seen it. He is always very relaxed, confident and docile. When Shelly takes him to the vet, she does not put him in a carrier. Instead, she puts a harness on him and carries him. He stays relaxed in the waiting room with big dogs and other cats as well as during the visit with the vet. Nothing seems to worry him.
Simba is a beautiful cat, too. He has short hair, but his coat is very thick and soft. His eyes are a beautiful blue color, but for some reason that color never seems to show in his pictures or videos. When I arrived, I found the tree Simba was in even before Shelly pointed it out to me as I heard Simba calling in his now familiar cry. Unlike the trees he climbed before, this one was a little different in that it had denser foliage and many small limbs and twigs I would have to push through to reach him. That meant I would not be able to let him come down in my lap as we had done a few times before.
I installed my rope, and, as expected, Simba was not bothered by it at all. I climbed up to him, and he greeted me just as he always did. I can always count on him to be friendly and easy to approach. I visited with him a few minutes, and, since I was on the opposite side of the tree from him, I took a minute to secure myself a little closer to him.
In his earlier rescues, he always came down either in my lap or the carrier. He never had a problem walking into the carrier even with no food inside. Since I could not bring him down in my lap this time, I pulled up the carrier for him with the expectation that he would go into it just like he did before. But for some strange reason, he wouldn't go inside. He would look inside, but he wouldn't go in. I decided to give him a better reason to go inside by offering him some food. He readily ate the food when I gave it to him, so I put it in the back of the carrier while he watched and held the open carrier up to him again. This time he looked inside to check it out thoroughly and then stepped inside. He kept his back legs on the tree, however, and with his long body, he reached all the way to the back of the carrier and ate some more food. At first, I thought he would move his back legs inside, but instead, he backed out, licked his lips and appeared to be telling me he had enough of the carrier.
I put the carrier away and prepared the cat bag. After some more petting and visiting, I felt his scruff, picked him up and pulled the bag over him. He never uttered a single cry or grunt, and he never grabbed the tree with one claw. He took it all perfectly like the docile boy that he is.I brought him down and handed him to Shelly, and she took him inside and released him. He looked around and casually walked out as if it were routine. After I finished packing up, I went inside to check on him, and he came to me for another visit to say thank you and goodbye.
Bye, Simba. I'm sure I will see you again.