Cat Rescue Guy

People often ask their neighbors to take care of their cat while they are out of town, but when this person in Natchez, Mississippi asked her neighbors to care for her cat, she introduced a new complication: her cat was stuck in a tree. The neighbor had to leave suddenly for a family emergency out of state, and the problem of getting her cat, Chester, down from the tree was dropped in the laps of Jolene, Peggy and John. Jolene, Peggy and John worked very hard to get Chester down, but after all their many efforts failed, they eventually discovered Bob Reese , the rescuer of cats in trees in Mississippi. Bob referred them to me since I was located much closer to them. Chester is a sweet, seven-month-old, orange-and-white kitty, and he was stuck about 30 feet high in a tree next to a wooden fence. By the time I climbed up to him, he had been stuck up there for three full days, and he was very happy to see me. I held a carrier up to him so he could walk inside, but he was hesitant to

Not every rescue I do is a "feel good" rescue, and this rescue of an unknown gray tabby was one of those. Most of the time when I rescue an unknown cat, it turns out to be a sweet, tame kitty, but, this time, I think she was feral. Feral cats often can't be rescued in a controlled way. They are so determined to get away from me that they would rather jump than allow me to get any closer to them, and that is what happened this time. The strange thing about this rescue is that this is the second time in a row that I had to rescue a cat on the top of a utility pole. Like the first one, this pole did not have any dangerous high-voltage distribution wires attached to it, but it did have a service drop wire to a house in addition to telephone and cable TV wires. The top of the pole was hollow where it had rotted over the years leaving only the outer shell. Since the cat could not get comfortable there, she rested on top of the service drop wires while using the dense poison

This is the first time I have been asked to rescue a cat on a utility pole. The cat, his family and I are all very lucky that this pole did not have any dangerous electrical wires on it. The only wire attached to the pole was for cable TV, and the cat, named Hobo Joe, was perched on the tip top of the pole about 20 feet high. There were electrical distribution wires on another pole nearby, but they were higher, and we were well outside the danger zone for those. Hobo Joe is a one-year-old, ear-tipped, community cat who is very friendly, and he introduced himself to Melissa and her children several months ago at their home in Central and decided to adopt them. He unwisely chose to wander into a neighbor's back yard where he met some unfriendly dogs who chased him up the pole. His family found him quickly, and he had been there only five hours by the time I rescued him. It is also fortunate that Hobo Joe got stuck in a yard that belongs to Amy who already knew about me and foll

When I first saw this black-and-white cat in the tree and heard him respond to me, I thought he would be a tame kitty and easy to rescue, but when I saw how distressed he became when I installed my rope, I had a bad feeling about it. He was between 15 and 20 feet high in a large Pine tree, and he was about three feet out on a limb. There was plenty of tree above him if he decided to climb higher, and the limb he was on stretched very far out over the house. I gave him time to calm down before continuing, but when I began to climb, I could hear the distress in his voice begin again, and I was concerned that this rescue could  be difficult and lengthy. Adding an additional wrinkle to the situation, there was an electrical line running from the distribution pole in the backyard through the crotch of the cat's limb on its way to the street light up front. This was only a single, insulated line that powered only the street light, so it was not nearly as dangerous as an uninsulated d

Poor Peaches. She sure picked a bad time to get stuck in a tree. She suffered through violent rain and lightning storms all night long, and, by daybreak, she was soaking wet, shivering and crying as the temperature began to fall. It must have been difficult for both Peaches and her very concerned family to wait the two hours it took for me to drive to them near Carriere, Mississippi that morning, but by the time I arrived, the weather had improved, and Peaches was mostly dry and perking up. It was eight months ago that Brittany's father found Peaches as a small, homeless kitten at the local school. He brought her home where Brittany bottled-fed her and raised her into the sweet orange tabby she is today, and it is because of her sweet nature that she was easy to rescue. Peaches was about 50 feet high in a Sweet Gum tree when I arrived, but she got excited when she saw all the people below trying to help her, and she managed to come down a little bit. She was on a short limb

It was such a pleasure to rescue Cookie. She is a nine-month-old tortie, and she was just as sweet and cooperative as she could be. She had been about 20 feet high in the tree for two nights when I arrived. Her family had spent many stressful hours trying to figure out how to get her down, even going so far as to use a tractor to lift a ladder up into the tree, but they could not quite reach her. When I climbed up to her, she was relaxed and happy to see me. I petted her freely, and she affectionately pushed her head into my hand. When I placed the open carrier in front of her, she sniffed it and then readily walked inside with no trouble. I brought her down and gave her to Jessica who took her home where she could recover in comfort. https://youtu.be/Ee4EXRi3X6I

With all the relatively easy rescues I have had lately, I was due for a tough one, and this unknown, mystery cat in Columbia, Mississippi turned out to be it. All my difficulties were due to an uncooperative cat, troublesome trees (yes, plural trees), bad luck and incompetence, yet, the five-hour marathon ended well with a safe and secure cat. I had trouble reading this cat. He appeared friendly at times and welcomed my touch and petting, but then, without warning, would turn away from me in fear. I still do not know what I did, if anything, to frighten him, but just as I became confident that I had this cat in the bag figuratively, he turned away to get out of reach, and the rescue began anew. He was a very pretty, long-hair, brown tabby that looked much like a Maine Coon but lacked the tufts on his ears and feet. He was about 30 feet high in a pine tree next to the driveway, but when I made friends with him and was about to bag him, he turned away, jumped to another limb, w