Cat Rescue Guy

This is a story about a sweet cat that got stuck in a tree, so I don't want to talk about the nasty tree he was in, how it was smothered with a wild variety of vines, or how difficult it was to climb. I don't even want to mention how I could not see the structure of this crooked tree or find any suitable places to install a rope, or how the vines were so dense that I could not examine the junctions of the tree to see if they would support my weight.  No, this is a story about a cat, so let's not get bogged down in the petty details about h ow the vines tested my patience and hampered my climbing by getting caught on my feet and gear and even prevented me from turning my head, or how some of the vines were so tough that I could not even break them out of my way. Talking about all the troubles and miseries I had trying to climb the tree would just take the focus away from the cat, so let's just not talk about that. Instead, let me tell you about a three-year-old boy named...

Chelsea's cat, Mickey, is a sweet, docile boy, but he sneaked out of the house and got stuck about 30 feet high in a tree, and he was very unhappy about that. So was Chelsea. She wasted no time in pleading for help on a community Facebook page, and, only six hours after Mickey climbed the tree, I was there to rescue him. Mickey is normally a friendly boy, but this situation was different, and he was pretty cautious with me. At one point, he turned to go farther away from me, but I managed to convince him to hang around and give me another chance. He sniffed my hand and eventually let me touch him, and, after that, he relaxed a bit. I held the carrier up to him, and he found that very enticing and walked inside while Chelsea encouraged him from below. I brought him down, and Chelsea took him back inside as I packed my gear. As I drove away, rain began to fall, but this sweet kitty was safely inside reuniting with a worried little girl.

A few weeks ago, Kimberly's two-year-old cat, Thomas, got stuck in a neighbor's tree, but, since he was not very high, a young athletic neighbor climbed the tree free-style (please don't do that!) and rescued him pretty quickly. Kimberly learned her lesson, and, from that point on, Thomas became an indoor-only cat. However, when you have a cat with a fondness for the outdoors and small children going in and out the door, it was only a matter of time before Thomas found an opportunity to satisfy his outdoor urging and escape. Not surprisingly, the result was the same, except, this time, Thomas got stuck in a different neighbor's tree and was much higher. Kimberly did her best to coax him down, but Thomas did not have the courage. Without success, Kimberly called numerous people for help and continued to work to coax Thomas down, but, by the time someone told her about me, Thomas had been stuck in the tree in Picayune, Mississippi for seven nights. Kimberly warned me that...