Louie

Louie is a sweet boy, but he is very wary of strangers, so it wasn't a surprise to see this nine-month-old Siamese mix go all the way out to the end of the limb to get away from me. Louie had been stuck in this tree in his next door neighbor's backyard for two nights in Livingston, and he was now about 40 feet high. Fortunately, his limb was not a very long one, but he was still beyond my reach, and the limb was not structurally sound enough to allow me to put any weight on it. I struggled to make friends with Louie from afar, but he was unimpressed and would not come closer to me. I finagled ways to safely move out closer to him without stressing his limb, and I could see him finally softening his stance with me. He stepped closer to me to sniff my outstretched hand, but then stepped back to his original spot. I regarded that as progress, and worked to stretch out even closer to him. I needed to be close enough to touch him if I was ever going to convince him that I was friendly. Once he sniffed my hand again, I was able to gently touch his head, and that made all the difference. He trusted me now and let me pet him more freely. I prepared my cat bag on my arm, massaged his scruff, and lifted him off his branch while pulling the bag down all around him. I secured him in the bag and brought him down to his worried family. Louie is doing fine now and enjoying getting some rest in his favorite spot.