Cat Rescue Guy

The weather forecast was not good. Tropical storm Barry was in the Gulf and expected to strengthen and come ashore sometime during the night. In advance of the storm, heavy rain showers had been forecast for my area in the late afternoon, but they did not appear to be materializing as predicted. Still, they could begin to form at any time, and the winds were picking up a bit. This would be a terrible time for a cat to get stuck in a tree, and I was glad that I did not have a cat rescue to do. Then the phone rang. The caller, Lauren, had just found my number when someone on Facebook recommended me to her in response to her post about her cat being stuck in a tree. Lauren had already suffered through the jokes, indifference, bad advice and platitudes that always rear their ugly heads in this situation, so she was relieved when I not only took the matter seriously but also said I would get her cat down. We just needed for the weather to hold off a little while. I feared that th

It is always a challenge for the children of a blended family to learn to get along. Such was the case when Mandy introduced her dogs to Tony's cat, Penelope. The dogs liked Penelope very much -- a little too much -- but the feelings were not mutual. The backyard, which formerly was Penelope's undisputed domain, was now suddenly going to the dogs, and Penelope was increasingly finding it necessary to hide under the shed. This time, however, they caught her by surprise, and she had to climb up the tree to escape their enthusiasm. Tony was there when his mama cat gave birth to Penelope and two other kittens. Tony found good homes for the other two kittens and kept Penelope and the mama for himself.  Penelope has been with Tony for five years now, and their bond has grown very deep, so when  Penelope became stuck in the tree, Tony did everything he could to get her down. Despite his determination and efforts, however,  nothing was working. The thirty feet of vertical distance b