Cat Rescue Guy

"My cat won't allow anyone to touch her except me. She is mean to everyone else." Those are not the words I want to hear about a cat I am about to rescue in a tree, but, to fully understand this cat, I need to dig deeper. Is the problem with the cat, the people, or both? Some cats have a lower threshold for petting, and some don't like to be touched in certain places at all. Some people don't understand the warning signals the cat is giving them and continue to annoy it until the cat swats at them. It's the same with people: s ometimes, you're just grouchy don't want to be bothered, and, sometimes, certain people just rub you the wrong way. Sometimes, it's both. After more thoroughly questioning Rebecca about her cat, Marshmallow, I began to learn that it's both. Marshmallow can be sweet if approached and treated properly, but she is not a cuddle-cat and not a lap-sitter. Marshmallow is a five-year-old brown tabby girl who Rebecca raised and bo...

At the young age of eight months, Oliver learned an important life lesson: on the other side of those fences around his back yard in Baton Rouge, sometimes, there are dogs that are not very hospitable. That's the lesson he learned this mid-afternoon, but, fortunately, there was a large tree in the yard that Oliver could climb to escape the dog's less-than-friendly intentions. Oliver climbed forty feet high where he found a bird's nest which made a comfortable and safe roost until he could figure out what to do next. It took him only a few seconds to figure out what to do next, and that was cry for help. When I went out to rescue him, he had spent only one night in the tree, but that was entirely too long for both him and his family. Oliver was desperate for help, so when I climbed up to him, this friendly boy was very happy to see me. We made our introductions, and, when I presented the carrier to him, he immediately stepped inside. With no troubles or dilly-dallying around...

Jett was stuck in a Pine tree for four nights, but sometime during his fourth night or early the next morning before I arrived, Jett moved to the nearby Oak tree whose limbs extended into the Pine tree. I'm sure glad he did, because, when I looked up into the Pine tree where he had been, all I could see was a dense mass of vines. So I was happy to see that he had moved to the Oak tree where it would be easier to reach him even though it, too, had quite a few vines of its own. In fact, all I could see of Jett was a black mass in the muscadine vines, but his frantic cries for help made it clear he was there. Jett is eleven months old and a super-friendly boy who was desperate for a rescue, so he could not have been more cooperative. Even before I introduced myself, he was ready to go with me, so all I had to do was spread the cat bag over my lap, and he readily stepped onto it. I pulled the bag up around him and took him down. He sure was allergic to something up there though, becaus...

I rescued Peaches in Carriere, Mississippi once before, but that was over two years ago when she was only eight months old. Now, she is almost three years old and has done it again, so I happily drove over there to rescue this sweet, orange tabby girl. She was a little over thirty feet high in a Sweet Gum tree and had been stuck only one night, but she was very anxious to get down. She watched me carefully as I climbed slowly up the tree toward her, and she kept telling me to hurry up. Once I reached her, I lifted her off her perch and set her on my lap where I had already prepared the cat bag. Then I lifted the bag up around her and brought her down. She was sweet the whole time and very happy to get back home to her loving family.

Norma takes care of a few feral cats on her property. She trapped, neutered, and vaccinated them and then released them on her property where she feeds them and watches over them. One of them, a one-year-old, troublesome girl named Bathsheba, got stuck in a tree for two nights, and Norma was worried about her. When Norma called me to see if I could help, she warned me that Bathsheba does not tolerate being touched. Feral cats can be either very easy or very difficult to rescue. There is no middle ground. Some are so skittish that all I have to do is shoot the weighted bag up into the tree above them and jostle it around to create a commotion in the foliage, and the cat will immediately run down the tree, probably falling part of the way, to get away from it. No climbing needed, and it's done in five minutes. If that doesn't work, however, then, if the tree and cat position allow, I can climb up the tree on the opposite side of the trunk where the cat can't see me and then g...

One-year-old Marty got a little too bold for his britches when he escaped his house in Denham Springs, Louisiana and jumped the canal behind his back yard to explore the wooded area. We don't know what happened, but Marty ended up very high at the top of a tree just inside the tree line. He was stuck there for two nights before Sara and Tracy found him despite all their hours of frantic searching. He was difficult to see up there (red circle), and my heart sank a bit when I saw him for the first time. With limited access and all the vines and foliage covering the tree, I didn't see a way to use my big sling shot to shoot a line into the tree anywhere with any likelihood of success. That meant I would have to climb the tree using a slow, tedious and strenuous method and do so all the way to the top. Fortunately, Marty must have sensed my despair in addition to his own, because at that moment he responded to the pleas from Sara and Tracy to come down, and that bold boy did indeed...

Yes, Oscar did it again. This would be his third rescue, and he was my third and final rescue of the day. Fortunately, he was also the easiest, as I expected. He was stuck about 40 feet high in the same tree where I first rescued him in his yard in Greenwell Springs, Louisiana. All I have to do with Oscar is to be sure I first approach him carefully, and then this special boy is sweet and trusting. I let him sniff my hand, then he let me pet him, and we were buddies. With the introductions out of the way, I spread the cat bag over my lap, he stepped on my lap, and I pulled the bag up around him and brought him down. I enjoy rescuing this cute cleft-palate boy, and I won't be surprised or disappointed if I get to rescue him again.

Frida is a super-friendly kitty. She is so friendly that her owner, Nick, was often afraid that strangers would take her home with them. Sounds like the ideal kind of kitty to rescue. This rescue is going to be easy. Wrong! Just like Beerus who I had rescued just minutes earlier, Frida went out to the end of a limb on a Pine tree in her yard in Abita Springs and would not budge. Unlike Beerus, nothing I did reassured her or convinced her to come toward me even a little bit.  I don't know why this friendly girl got so scared, but nothing I did eased her fear. From the ground, I could see her silhouette at the end of the limb, but, once I was in the tree, I could not see her at all because the foliage blocked my view. Even when I went out the skinny limb as far as I dared, I could see only her pointed ears, and she was still far out of my reach. I decided to go back down to the ground so she would feel less threatened and, hopefully, walk back up the limb to the trunk. I waited ...

I had three rescues scheduled for the day, and the first one was for Beerus, a one-year-old boy who had been stuck in a large Pine tree for four nights on his farm near Folsom, Louisiana. Beerus is normally a people-friendly boy, but when he saw me climbing up toward him, he got terrified and walked all the way out to the end of an extremely long limb where I had no chance to reach him. I did my best to charm him, but he was not impressed, so I turned my back to him and ignored him. I gave him plenty of time to change his mind about me, and he took every bit of that time. I'm not sure if it was because the wind was tossing him around at the end of that long limb or if he decided it was worth putting me to the test, but he eventually began to approach me cautiously. When he finally came close enough to sniff my out-stretched hand, I began to feel like we were finally making some progress. When he came a little closer and let me touch his head and give him some pets, I began to feel ...