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Showing posts from November, 2018

Blackie

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Pam's six-year old granddaughter, Allie, was distressed about her cat that was stuck in a tree. This had happened once before but with a different cat. When Allie's first cat got stuck in a tree, the fire department came out to help. Unfortunately, the way they chose to help was by aiming the water from their fire hose at the cat until it fell to the ground. While the cat survived the fall, he suffered some severe injuries to his spine and had to be put down. Now Allie's new kitten, which she named Blackie, was stuck in a tree, and all the efforts of everyone in the family to get it down failed. Allie was worried that Blackie would suffer the same fate as her first cat, and each night when she went to bed, she cried with worry for Blackie. Blackie is a cute, eight-month old, black and white tuxedo cat, and for reasons unknown, she climbed up a large hickory tree next to the driveway. When I arrived, Blackie had been in the tree for four nights and was about 60 feet high

Si

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"Let me warn you: this cat is mean." That is how Sarah first described her cat, Si, when she called me to see if I could rescue it out of a tree. She went on to explain that Si is very skittish, runs from strangers, does not like to be touched, hates carriers and sometimes bites or scratches. After hearing all that, I found myself looking for excuses to avoid this rescue, but I somehow found the courage to say that I would be there first thing in the morning. Si's story is a painful and bittersweet one. She was just four weeks old when a law enforcement officer brought her to a local veterinarian who happens to be Sarah's father. The officer happened to notice some kids swinging a large sack against a brick wall, and he stopped to ask them what they were doing. He was shocked to see that they had several kittens in the sack they were apparently trying to kill. The officer took all the kittens to Sarah's father, but only one of the kittens survived. Sarah took

Grits

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Sam wanted to adopt a kitten, so she went to an adoption event at the local pet store. There she found two kittens which had been sharing a cage together, and they had been named Shrimp and Grits. (Shrimp and grits is a popular dish found in many fine Southern restaurants.) Grits, a mostly black tortie, came straight up to Sam, jumped into her lap and started purring. It was love at first sight for both of them, and in that moment, the bond had formed and the decision to adopt had been made.  Today, Grits is one and a half years old, and the bond she shares with Sam is still just as strong. So when Grits went missing a few days ago, Sam was very worried. Sam looked all over and called for Grits but could not find her. The next day, a neighbor reported on nextdoor.com that there was a cat stuck in a tree in his backyard. Sam went to look, and there was her sweet Grits high up in a tree. Sam was relieved to have found her, but now had a new problem in getting her down. By the end of

Tee

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A beautiful, gray tabby cat just showed up one day at the rural home of Linda and Richard outside Kaplan, Louisiana. They had few neighbors and knew that it did not belong to any of them.  He was a very friendly and affectionate boy, and t hey would have been more happy to welcome this mysterious newcomer if he had just been able to get along better with the two cats they already had. Still, they cared for him and gave him a place to call his own at least temporarily until they decided what to do with him. In the meantime, they called him Tee. Tee had been with them only a few weeks when some dogs chased him up a tall, vine-covered pine tree in their yard. He settled on the lowest branch but was still 40 feet high, and he did not know how to get down. Richard and Linda tried to help him down, but nothing worked. Their neighbor, Serena, also became involved and tried to help too, but she failed as well. She called everyone she thought could remotely help in some way, but they all tu

Pine Cone

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I was at home preparing to go rescue Alora when I got a call from Pam at the St. John Parish Animal Shelter in LaPlace asking if I could rescue a cat in a tree near there. Someone had reported seeing a cat that had been stuck in a tree in someone's backyard for two nights already. The cat was unknown, but Pam said they would take the cat once I got it down. She had already talked to all the neighbors involved and got permission for me to be there and rescue the cat. I told Pam that I had to rescue Alora first, but I would be there as soon as I finished. However, since I never know beforehand how long any rescue will take, I warned her that I may not be able to get there until the next morning. Fortunately, Alora's rescue went fairly quickly, so I called Pam and told her I was on my way. When I arrived, I met Shanta, the homeowner, who graciously allowed me into her back yard where I found a white cat about 20 feet high sleeping deeply on the lowest limb of a pine tree whic

Alora

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A beautiful and friendly calico cat just showed up at Joe's house one day and introduced herself to him. Joe was a dog person and didn't have much experience with cats, but this one was just so relaxed, friendly and likable. For the first time, Joe was beginning to see why some people are so attached to their cats, because he was quickly getting attached to this one. He asked around, but no one knew the cat or to whom it might belong. She was a bit of a mystery. The next day, the cat was still hanging around, and Joe was relieved and happy to see her.  Not only was Joe getting attached to the cat, the cat appeared to be getting attached to Joe.  He was even thinking about keeping her.  On the third day, however, he did not see her and began to worry. He looked and called around for her and, after several minutes, heard her responding to him. It took a few minutes before he could locate her cry coming from up high, but he found her up in a neighbor's tree. Joe was reli

Pumpkin

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When Kayla called me to see if I could rescue her sweet, one-year old cat, Pumpkin, from the pine tree in her back yard, it sounded like a routine rescue. I know better than to predict how long a rescue will take, but I thought this one would be fairly quick. But when I arrived at the site and saw the tree and learned more about Pumpkin's disposition, I knew I was in for a long one. The tree was a tall pine tree surrounded by a dense, impenetrable thicket of privet, vines, thorns, bushes and small trees. To install my rope in the tree, I needed to be able to get fairly close to the trunk, but that did not appear to be possible here. To make matters worse, the more I learned about Pumpkin from Kayla, the more clear it became that Pumpkin was not going to be the least bit cooperative. Yep, I was in a for long one. I will spare you all the details about the difficulties, poor decisions, bad luck and creativity I employed to install my rope in the tree while the rain began to fal

Tootie

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Celeste was driving the car with her daughter when they noticed that something was thrown from the window of the car in front of them. Whatever it was, it landed on the side of the road, and the daughter noticed that it was moving. Celeste stopped and turned around so they could go back to see what it was. As they slowly approached the mysterious object, they were shocked to learn that it was a small kitten. The kitten appeared to be fine and was just as cute as it could be.   It appeared to be a long-hair Siamese but with white toes.  Being the animal lovers that they are, without hesitation or a second thought, they scooped up the bewildered kitten and took it home. As unlucky as the kitten was to be born into a family that would throw it from the car to the side of the road, it was even more lucky that it was Celeste and her daughter that were there to see. Others would have passed it by, but Celeste and her daughter were caring people who often fostered cats until they could