Noel is a six-month-old tortie who was a Christmas present that Brittany and Kenneth gave to their daughter. Noel is kept inside, but she managed to slip out the door and then got stuck in a tall tree in her front yard. Brittany and Kenneth did everything they could to get her down, but nothing worked. Thankfully, their neighbor learned about me through a comment from someone on Facebook, and they contacted me shortly before Noel's fourth night in the tree. I agreed to go out there in the morning to see if I could help. When I arrived, I instantly heard Noel crying to me and watched her as she walked out on whichever limb would get her closest to me. Wherever I walked, she tried to follow. That is reassuring to me as it indicates that she will likely come to me in the tree. I met Brittany and Kenneth and started installing my rope in the tree. Noel handled the rope installation just fine and was no more distressed than before. I climbed up to her while she paced back and forth on the more level parts of her long limb crying to me to hurry up. When I eventually pulled myself close to her, she readily walked up to my outstretched hand to sniff, but she was also cautious about getting too close. She sniffed my hand for a long time as if she had to carefully analyze hundreds of pieces of information and organize it in a meaningful way to make sense of it all. When I made a small move to touch her, she backed off immediately, but she always readily came back to sniff some more. I have never had a cat sniff my hand for so long before, but I was happy to give her as much time as she needed.
It took her a few minutes, but eventually she processed all the information she took in and decided I was okay. She walked up to me and let me touch her back and pet her. It was all good now, and we were friends. After a minute of cementing our new friendship, I pulled up a carrier to see if she would walk into it. She was interested, but skipped past it on the first attempt. I pulled it away and put it back down again, and this time she readily walked up to it and gave it the thorough Noel sniff test. After sniffing the entrance, she decided it was okay to go inside for further investigation. She stepped almost all the way inside with only her two back feet still outside. While she continued to sniff inside, I decided to take advantage of the moment and just push her back feet inside while closing the door. As I did so, Noel reacted with a hiss as she turned around, but by then it was too late. She was securely inside the carrier and didn't seem very disturbed by it.
I brought her down and gave her to Brittany and Kenneth. We took her inside to release her, but she quickly slinked off to hide behind the furniture, and I never saw her again after that. But she is safe at home now, and the stressful ordeal is over.
Noel handled the rope installation just fine and was no more distressed than before. I climbed up to her while she paced back and forth on the more level parts of her long limb crying to me to hurry up. When I eventually pulled myself close to her, she readily walked up to my outstretched hand to sniff, but she was also cautious about getting too close. She sniffed my hand for a long time as if she had to carefully analyze hundreds of pieces of information and organize it in a meaningful way to make sense of it all. When I made a small move to touch her, she backed off immediately, but she always readily came back to sniff some more. I have never had a cat sniff my hand for so long before, but I was happy to give her as much time as she needed.
