This cat is a bit of a mystery. She was stuck in a tree at the edge of a wooded area next to a little-used, residential, dead-end road far out in the country. It is remarkable that anyone even noticed this cat, since she was not easy to see. But Amy lives down the road a bit, and she noticed her. It was the cat's frequent, loud crying that led Amy to her, and it was Amy's persistence in finding help for her that eventually saved her. We don't know exactly how long this cat was in the tree before Amy found her, but by the time Amy made her own, creative attempts to rescue her and arranged unsuccessful attempts by others, six days had passed before someone referred her to me.
Except for the difficulties of installing a rope in the tree with the woods on one side of the tree and a ditch and road on the other, the kitty's rescue was pretty simple and easy. Though she was frightened by the disturbance I created in the tree when installing my rope, she calmed down by the time I climbed up to her, and she never moved from her original position. She was resting next to the trunk of the tree in the crotch of a large limb about 25 feet high.
When I first climbed up to her, she did not appear particularly scared of me, but she wasn't making friends with me either. After a couple sniffs of my hand, however, she let me touch her, and then she began to warm up to me. It was when I opened a can of food that she really perked up and stood up for the first time. She was hungry and ready for the food, so I gave her a bite and then put the food in the back of the carrier. After a minute of hesitation, she stepped in the carrier for the rest of the food, and I closed the door and brought her down.
Fortunately, Amy kindly and generously agreed to be responsible for the cat and keep it temporarily until the owner can be found. We closed ourselves up in her vehicle so the cat could not escape and then transferred it to Amy's cage. As it turned out, the cat was not at risk for escape. She seemed more interested in getting and giving some rubbing than anything. I tried to check her for a microchip but did not find one, though with all her constant movement, it was difficult to do a thorough search.
Amy checked with her neighbors and created a post on the Lost Pets web page, but as of this writing, the owner has not been found. If the owner is not eventually found, Amy will find a good home for the kitty. While I refer to the cat as a "she," the fact is that I never was able to determine the gender definitively, so a correction may be needed in the future.
