It's a familiar story: a kitten of mysterious origin suddenly appears at a random house, gradually works its way into the heart and home, and becomes a lifelong member of the family. In this particular case, the kitten is a tortie, now named Lily, who appeared at Brittany's rural workplace in Picayune, Mississippi. Lily likes Brittany best, but she has become accepted and well-loved by everyone there, and Lily, who is now about 12 weeks old, already has a spay appointment with the veterinarian in a few days. In the meantime, another familiar story played out: kitten goes missing and is found stuck in a tree. Yes, Lily was found about 35 feet high in a skinny tree just inside the wooded area behind the house after she had spent the night there. Brittany contacted me that day, but bad weather would prevent a rescue until the following morning.Lily was in a tree with two stems, one larger than the other, and, of course, Lily climbed the skinny one. The skinny stem was too small for me to climb, so I climbed the larger stem (to the left in the picture) until I was level with Lily. In spite of the terrified cries she let out while I was preparing to climb, Lily appeared unafraid and comfortable with me. I put a rope around her stem to pull her closer to me, and I leaned nearly horizontal to reach her. Had I been in a position to make a lap for her, I suspect she would have voluntarily stepped on my lap, but that was not an option this time. I knew she was already comfortable with a carrier, so I opened the carrier and held it in front of her. Lily was happy to get off those uncomfortable, skinny limbs, so she stepped inside the carrier without any hesitation.
