Cat Rescue Guy

Penny is truly a neighborhood cat.  Penny is a very friendly orange tabby boy, and h e just showed up mysteriously two weeks ago without explanation in the quiet, close-knit neighborhood in Leesville and very quickly endeared himself to all the children and adults alike. The children named him Penny because they thought his color was like that of a penny. Courtney and her other adult neighbors did their best to find Penny's home, including taking him to the vet to be scanned for a microchip, but they struck out at every turn. While all the neighbors were happily caring for him, one of them decided to actually adopt him and give him a good home as soon as she returned from her out-of-town trip. While she was still away, however, Penny got stuck in a tree. No one knew why he climbed the tree, but everyone worked to help him get down. It was a great, neighborhood effort, but they were unable to get him down on their own, and they were unable to find anyone else to do it. After dis

Cats don't have holidays, so I don't either. I have rescued at least one cat on every holiday except Memorial Day, and I am holding out hope that I will get that one next year. Twice, I have rescued different cats on Christmas day in different years, and, with Christmas approaching, my intuition was telling me that I would have another one this year. But my intuition was off. It came on the afternoon of Christmas Eve instead. This time, the victim was Lucy, the one-and-a-half-year-old, gray and white cat that belongs to Natalie, Vince and their five children. Lucy had been stuck for one night in a tree in a wild, swamp habitat of cypress and willow trees, but the land was currently dry exposing numerous small cypress knees which, by the way, make excellent tripping hazards. The Swamp Willow tree that Lucy had chosen presented some climbing challenges for me. The tree leaned slightly but appeared to be firmly rooted and reasonably healthy. The trunk rose about 40 feet where

John was shocked and could not believe his luck. He had just searched the internet for a solution that seemed inconceivable -- cat stuck in a tree in Baton Rouge -- and, suddenly, my website appeared and turned his inconceivable solution into a reality. John's two-year-old cat, Alice, got stuck in a large live oak tree in his back yard the day before, and he and, especially, his wife, were distraught over it and at a loss about what to do. After discovering my website and talking with me on the phone, now they had hope. When I arrived, I met John who was using crutches and recovering from a near-fatal accident just one month before. He had been jogging when he was hit by a car that was estimated to be moving somewhere between 45 and 60 MPH. He was hit broadside in the center of the car, slammed into the windshield and thrown 90 feet away. It is very rare for a person to survive such a collision, but he is one of those rare people, even though, amazingly, the car was totaled. He h

I had just walked out the door at CARA's House after leaving Cedar there when my phone rang. The call was for a rescue in Ocean Springs, Mississippi for a cat that had been stuck in a tree for six days. The day was still young, the weather was pretty, and I had no other plans, so off I went. The cat, named Oz, belonged to a retired colonel who, in his younger years, would have had no hesitation in going after the cat himself, but, today, his injured body would not allow that. The colonel had plenty of interesting stories to tell of his exploits, but he also had stories to tell about Oz which illustrated just how proud he is of his tough cat and how alike and colorful both of these characters are. They have been buddies for seven years, and the colonel is going to do everything he can to help his cat get down from that tree. Oz was just over 20 feet high in a tall pine tree which was just inside a wooded area behind the house. The colonel assured me that Oz was not skittish a

It was a pitiful sight. This poor, lonely cat was balanced high and exposed on top of a skinny pole as if he were performing a circus act. The pole was actually a tree, but the top had broken off and the branches were few and small, so it looked more like a pole than a tree. The cat was balanced there on the tip of the tree about 30 feet high and had been there through two nights of near-freezing temperatures. Making the story even more sad, this unknown cat was either lost or, more likely, dumped on this dead-end road in Gonzales to fend for himself.  Fortunately for the cat, Cammy lived in the house there at the end of the road, noticed the cat's plight and sought help. Cammy called the parish animal shelter, and they referred her to me. The sky was clear and blue, but it was cold when I arrived early that morning to see if I could help this cat. I was not fond of the idea of climbing that tree, but, fortunately, there was a taller and stronger sweet gum tree next to it that

Staci and her husband, Emmett, were very stressed over their cat, Pepper, who had climbed up a tree in their backyard. Emmett and his son, Evan, did everything they could to help Pepper get down out of that tree, but nothing was quite working. They struggled to devise new ideas every day, and one of them almost worked. They attached several long boards together to form one long board that would reach Pepper, and then they attached a soft carrier to the end of it. They put food in the carrier, propped it up next to Pepper and waited for him to jump into it. Pepper thought about it and got very close to doing it, but could not quite bring himself to actually jumping inside. That is when Staci called Animal Control and was referred to me. By this time, Pepper had spent six nights in the tree. Pepper was about 25 feet high near the top of a mostly one-sided tree with a dead top. While there were a few limbs above Pepper, I did not trust them with my weight since they were so close to t

It is difficult to explain why it took almost five hours from arrival to departure for this marathon rescue. Even I don't understand it. Please just let it suffice to say that it was due to a scared and uncooperative cat, darkness due to nightfall, a missed opportunity, and a couple of times where the brittle wood of the pine tree caused me to slip into very awkward positions that required a long recovery time. The cat was unknown, but several people at the mobile home park heard and noticed it. Ginny and her husband, Anthony, who manage the park in Gulfport, Mississippi, were very concerned about the cat, and, after trying everything and calling everyone they could, found me and called to see if I could help. I calculated that, after the two-hour drive, I would have almost two hours before dark which should be enough time for the rescue, so I agreed to go right away. The cat, a large orange tabby, was about 30 feet high in a pine tree which was surrounded by some smaller tr

Normally, I use the day after the rescue to edit the video and pictures and write the rescue story, but this past week, I had five rescues in five consecutive days, so I got a little behind in my publication schedule. Here are the next two rescues: Earl On the day I got the call to rescue an unknown cat stuck in a tree on a wooded lot in Abita Springs, the weather forecast was not good. Rain was expected all day, so I watched the weather radar to look for an opening, and I found one. While it rained on me for the entire drive over there, it stopped when I arrived, and, to my surprise, the rain continued to hold back even though the rescue took much longer than I had expected. The unknown cat was about 40 feet high on the lowest significant limb in a tall, slightly leaning pine tree which was in a wooded, overgrown lot, and he had been there two nights. The cat had a white chest, but, otherwise, was mostly gray, so I will call him Earl. Most of the time, the unknown cats I have