Cat Rescue Guy

Caramel looks so sweet. The truth is she is sweet to her family, but, honestly, she was downright rude and even hostile to me and has no sense of guilt or shame about it. This is the second time I have rescued her, and she was much the same the first time as well. The difference this time, however, is that I could not make any progress with her allowing me to touch her. At her first rescue, I was able to gradually desensitize her to my brief, gentle touches over a long period of time until I was eventually able to grab her by the scruff and bag her. This time, however, she was not putting up with any of that, and it was pretty clear to me that she would bite me if I attempted to try that again. She sniffed my hand, but, otherwise, she mostly turned her back to me and hissed and growled at every little movement or sound I made. I hated to do it, but I resorted to using the rescue-pole on her. Not surprisingly, she didn't like that either, and she gave me a hard time as I tried to s...

Boo could not make up his mind. First, he was afraid of me, then he liked me, then he was afraid of me again, then I was okay, and then he was afraid again. This mind-changing exercise happened several times, and each time Boo became afraid of me, he climbed higher in the tree. Boo is a one-year-old, gray and white tabby kitty who got stuck in a tree in the woods behind his home in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, and he had been there one night before I arrived to rescue him. He was at the yellow circle in the picture when I arrived, but, by the end of the rescue, he was at the red circle about 40 feet high. When I first approached Boo when he was at the yellow circle, I introduced myself, and he seemed comfortable with me. Just as I was thinking this would be a quick and easy rescue, Boo, for reasons I don't know, decided he didn't trust me and climbed up a bit higher. We repeated this pattern until he eventually reached as far as he could go, and, at that point, we experienced a litt...

With the rescues I do, the focus is always on the cat, so it's easy to forget sometimes that the cat owner -- sometimes, a whole family -- is involved as well. Yes, the cat is miserable and suffering in the tree, but what you don't see is the cat owner's misery and suffering which, sometimes, is worse than the cat's. Such was the case with this rescue for Panther, an inside-only kitty who escaped home early one morning and climbed a tree in the wooded area next to his home in rural Livingston, Louisiana. Panther is fourteen months old now, but Leyda first found him when he was only five days old and near death. Leyda nursed Panther back into good health, and they both bonded very strongly with each other. When Panther escaped, Leyda searched desperately for him, and, shortly before dark, she found him deep in the woods and stuck 35 feet high in a Pine tree. Leyda and her family made valiant efforts to rescue Panther, but they were unsuccessful. Leyda was very distressed...

This is the second time I have rescued Luke -- so I have been told -- but, honestly, I don't remember the first one which was two years ago. I recognize the rural Watson neighborhood, but none of the houses looks familiar. I don't have any record of the rescue, but that could just mean that it was so easy that it wasn't worth recording, or, maybe, I failed to get any pictures. Not every rescue I do gets reported or documented. Regardless, here is Luke now, stuck only 15 feet high in a Sweetgum tree at the edge of a wooded area, and he has been there one night. Luke is two and a half years old now, and he is known as a sociable, people-loving, gray tabby boy, so I was disappointed to see him so afraid of me when I climbed up to him. I could not get him to come close to me, so, while I tried to reassure and woo him, I worked to set a rope higher in the tree so I could move out the limb closer to him. If I could get close enough where he could sniff my hand and let me touch hi...

When Keanu got stuck in a tree, she wasn't like most cats. She was miserable, but she didn't want to complain too much. She was distressed, but she didn't cry out loudly and constantly. She wanted someone to help her, but she wasn't demanding. Instead, this sweet, one-year-old, bobtail kitty was meek and reserved, and she expressed her misery in a gentle and almost whimpering manner. When I climbed up to her, she readily greeted and accepted me, and she waited patiently for me to get ready for her. After I spread the cat bag over my lap, she stepped on my lap fully trusting me to take her home. I pulled the bag up around her and took her down. We were only 20 feet high, and she had been in the tree for a total of only five hours, but I could sense that this had been traumatic for her just the same. But she is safe at home and feeling much better now, and, hopefully, this experience will soon be forgotten.