Prudence

Sometimes, it takes a village to rescue a cat, or, in this case, three neighbors in three consecutive houses in a pleasant neighborhood in Hammond. In this mini-village, there were Patricia, the cat owner, Dana, the property owner, and Charmin, the next-door neighbor of action who made the rescue happen. Prudence, the two-year-old calico, got stuck 30 feet high in a tree in Dana's backyard, and Patricia went over there frequently trying to coax her down but was not having any luck. The fire department could not help, and Patricia didn't know what else to do. It was Charmin, the third neighbor, who noticed the problem and found me. She gave my contact information to Dana, and Dana contacted me to see if I could help. Prudence had been stuck in the tree for four nights, so I went out there right away.

Prudence is normally a very friendly girl, but the commotion I made in the tree while installing my rope frightened her, and she walked out on another limb to get away from it. When I climbed up to her, I could not convince her to come toward me, so I eased my way out to her to let her sniff my outstretched hand. After a second sniff and a gentle touch, she decided I was trustworthy and then came to me. I gave her some pets, sweet talk, and a rump-rub until she became very comfortable with me. I spread the bottom of the cat bag over my lap and held a bowl of food to the side to encourage her to step on my lap. She stepped on my lap with her front feet, but, no matter how far I made her stretch to reach the food, she wouldn't quite pull her back feet on my lap. We had to do this three or four times before she finally placed all four feet on my lap. At that point, because she was so focused on the food, I had to place the food in the bag with her while I pulled the sides of the bag up around her. It was a little messy, but I had her secured and took her down to Patricia who, with a big smile of relief and gratitude, carried her home.