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Showing posts from May, 2023

Tippy

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Tippy didn't know it, but her luck was about to change. This six-year-old dilute calico kitty had been in the shelter for most of her life. She had been adopted and returned to the shelter a total of five times by people who probably did not understand her feisty attitude. She would swat at anyone who dared to touch her sensitive lower back, so she is not a good fit for a home with children. But Cherry and Matt were in the shelter giving her a good look now, and this was a family who understood cats and knew how unlikely it was that Tippy would ever get adopted again at her age with her history. That is when Tippy's luck changed, and she went to her new home in Breaux Bridge and has lived there happily for the past three years. The only problem now is that, to the family's shock and horror, Tippy was stuck 30 feet high in a Live Oak tree in the backyard. Tippy is at least nine years old now, and it's unusual for an older cat to get stuck in a tree. Almost all the rescue

Little Boy

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Little Boy is a four-year-old, gray-and-white kitty who got stuck in a skinny Sweetgum tree for one night at his rural home near Holden, Louisiana. The tree was next to a utility pole which held a security light and carried the electric service wires from the street to the house. Elizabeth called the fire department, and, surprisingly, they actually went out there to see if they could help but were unable to do anything because of the electric line as well as concern that the skinny tree would not be strong enough up high to support a ladder. Instead, they gave my phone number to Elizabeth, and she called me. I, too, had concerns about this skinny tree and was not sure if it would allow me to reach Little Boy who was about thirty feet high and near the top. There was a large tree nearby with a large limb reaching toward Little Boy's tree, so I chose to install my rope there and then pull myself over to Little Boy's tree. Little Boy was perfectly quiet and still during the entir

KC

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I first rescued this sweet, orange tabby two years ago, and, when I asked about his name, I heard his owner say, "Casey." Two years later, when I rescued this cat the second time, I learned that I had misunderstood his name. His name is really "KC" which stands for "Krazy Cat." That is why his name for his first rescue is Casey , but his name for this second rescue is KC. Both rescues are for the same cat, an adorable, bobtail, orange tabby boy in Slidell who is now four years old. When I arrived at KC's house and walked to the front door to ring the doorbell, I could hear KC crying off to the side. I could not see him, but his cry of misery and desperation went straight to my heart and drew me toward him. This is the kind of cry that affects me in an emotional way and forces me urgently to go help him as soon as possible. It energizes me with great strength and endurance even if I am already tired. Fortunately, I was not already tired. Indeed, I was f

Luna

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Luna's rescue was sabotaged before I even started. Luna is a sweet, three-year-old, strictly indoor-only, black kitty who got stuck in a tree just inside the woods behind her home in Gray, Louisiana. The tree was a double-stem Sweetgum tree covered with Poison Ivy, and Luna was 45 feet high in the taller stem where circled, but out of sight, in the picture here. A well-meaning, ambitious, and brave neighbor offered to help, and his first thought was simply to cut the whole stem down. He hacked at the base of the stem on two sides with a hatchet as shown in the next two pictures (notice the large Poison Ivy vine that was also cut) before giving up in favor of another plan. He free-climbed the tree without any tree-climbing safety gear up to 45 feet high, but Luna viewed him as a threat and climbed out of his reach. He attached a rope to the stem at 45 feet to use for pulling the stem down in the direction he wanted. Roughly ten feet below the rope, he used a reciprocating saw to cut

Kitty

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Kitty is a two-year-old orange tabby who got stuck 30 feet high in a tree in the woods next to his rural home near Covington, Louisiana. He had spent three nights in the tree before I arrived to rescue him. He is a sweet, friendly boy, but, strangely, he is not particularly fond of sitting on anyone's lap. With that in mind, I intended to get him in a carrier, but, once I climbed up to him, I realized I left the carrier down on the ground. He was so friendly and happy to see me that he started purring, so I decided to try to spread the cat bag over my lap and see if I could get him on my lap anyway. Holding some tasty treats over my lap got his front legs on my lap, but I had to pull the treats farther and farther away from him to get him to pull his back legs on my lap. Once he placed his back legs on my lap, I dropped the treats in the bag under his nose and pulled the bag up around him. After securing him in the bag, I took him down and gave him back to Evan who had been ver

Yzma

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When I see a cat this cute, I just assume it must be sweet too, and Yzma, the eight-month-old torby belonging to Reagan in Zachary, is, indeed, very sweet. Yzma somehow escaped her house without anyone noticing, and she found herself stuck in a huge tree in her backyard neighbor's yard. It's a good thing Yzma was so sweet and ready to greet me when I climbed up to her, because, if she had been scared, it would have been a nightmare to catch her in a tree this size with plenty of room to roam. She greeted me and made friends with me right away, and my plan was to get her to step on my lap so I could secure her in the cat bag as gently as possible. Even though she frequently likes to get in Reagan's lap, my lap was somehow not even on her radar. She wasn't even considering it. I asked Reagan if Yzma was comfortable being picked up and held and got a definite, "yes." So I decided to pick her up and place her on my lap where the cat bag had already been prepared.