Pumpkin

Pumpkin is a very sweet, three-year-old brown tabby girl who lives with Raymond and Rosemary in a very rural area near Lumberton, Mississippi. Pumpkin got stuck in a Pine tree in her back yard, and Raymond and Rosemary did everything they could and called everyone they could think of to help her down. On the fourth day, they called the animal shelter in a nearby town and spoke with Brenda who happened to know about me. She contacted me, and I agreed to go out there right away. The weather was not very good, but it appeared that I would have time to do the rescue between bouts of rain.

Pumpkin was 20 feet high in a Pine tree in which the top had broken off many years ago. The only limbs that were large enough for me to install a rope were at the top of the tree where the trunk was rotting away on the inside. I could not know how securely anchored those top limbs were, so it was not safe to use them. The only limb I could use was only 10 feet high, so I climbed the rope up to that point and then switched to a slow and tedious method of climbing a limbless pole after that.

I was pleased to see that Pumpkin remained calm during my ascent, and by the time I reached her, she calmly welcomed me. She sniffed my hand and let me gently rub her cheeks and then pet her head and back. She seemed glad to see someone and was comfortable with me, so it was time to bring her down. I had been warned beforehand that she does not like carriers, so I did not even bring one with me out of fear that the sight of one would cause her to climb higher. I hated the thought of bagging this sweet girl, but that was the only option I had at that point. I prepared the bag, petted her some more, massaged her neck and then lifted her out of her perch and pulled the bag over her. She did not like it, but she was safely in the bag, and I calmed her down as much as I could. I brought her down as quickly as possible and handed her to Raymond, and he took her inside the house to release and feed her.


One of the reasons that Pumpkin hates the carrier is because she must make frequent trips to the vet for her asthma condition. When I was climbing up to her, she had an asthmatic coughing spell that concerned me, because I have never seen this condition in a cat before. There is nothing to do except help keep the cat as calm as possible, so I did my best to do that. Her coughing spell lasted about 30 seconds, and then she was back to her normal, relaxed self again. I was concerned that the stress of bagging her would trigger another spell, but it did not, and I was grateful for that. There is no cure for asthma, but I do wish for as little difficulty as possible for this sweet girl.

The next day I checked with Raymond to see how Pumpkin was doing, and he reported that she was doing well. He sent this sweet picture of her getting some loving from his granddaughter after the rescue.