Cat Rescue Guy

Sometimes, I get to rescue some of the cutest cats, like these next two, Callie and Coka. Callie was stuck in an old Tallow tree in Baton Rouge for five hot nights, and, even though this two-year-old normally does not like strangers, she was perfectly calm and receptive with me approaching her in the tree. She was interested in the food I was holding, but she would not step all the way on my lap to reach it. Each time she placed her front feet on my lap to reach the food, she kept looking at my other hand suspiciously. Since I could not get her to trust me enough to step all the way on my lap, I had to grab her by the scruff and pull the bag over her instead. I apologized and reassured her in the bag and took this sweet cutie home where she is now perfectly comfortable and happy. Coka is a one-year-old Siamese mix who escaped his home in Albany, Louisiana and got stuck high in a big tree in the woods behind his house. It took his family some time to find him, and Coka had spent three n

I have been celebrating Difficult Cat Week here with consecutive, all-you-can-sweat, exhausting rescues, and I am hoping the celebration comes to an end soon. I was driving to Mississippi for a rescue when the cat came down on his own about the time I reached the state line. I turned around and headed home, and, once I was about halfway home, I got a call about another rescue in Picayune, Mississippi. I turned around and headed there feeling happy that this trip was not totally wasted. When I arrived to see where the cat was in the tree, however, I didn't feel very happy anymore. Georgie is a one-year-old black kitty who escaped his house and was missing for three nights when Lauren found him in a neighbor's tree several houses down the street. Georgie was near the top of a Sweetgum tree up high in the small wood where I could not go. Judging from the way the spindly stem was swaying in the wind, I did not think I would be able to get close enough to reach him even with my full

I was concerned about doing this rescue. From the way Piper was described to me, it was clear that there was no chance that she would allow me to get close to her, and, in a tree like this, that is bad news. The tree was not large enough for me to hide on the opposite side of the trunk and climb up without her seeing me until I was above her. That is the approach I often take when I expect the cat to move away from me, and that approach prevents the cat from climbing higher. Piper's commanding view of everything below her meant that she would easily see me climbing up toward her, and that would give her plenty of time to climb higher. This tree was made up of only vertical stems and branches, and there was hardly a horizontal limb to be found. If Piper climbed higher, she would not be able to find a secure resting spot, and I would not be able to climb nearly as high as Piper on the small wood at the top of the tree. I was not feeling optimistic about this rescue. I installed my ro

I don't know what to call Cutie. She is part gray tabby, orange tabby, and tortie, so I guess that makes her a torby. But she also has white which makes her like a calico. Should I call her a tortico? Or caliby? Whatever you call her, she lives up to her name and is quite a cutie. She is sweet too. That is, once she learns to trust you. Cutie was chased by some loose dogs up a tree in the wooded area behind her home near Carriere, Mississippi, and she was stuck there for four nights before Mildred found me and the weather allowed me to rescue her. Cutie wasn't very high, and she may have eventually found a way down on her own, but there was always the threat of those dogs returning, and she felt safer in the tree even when it meant enduring some thunderstorms. Cutie is normally a very friendly girl, but she was terrified to see me climb up to her. She walked out to the end of the limb to get as far away from me as possible, and there she stopped and let out a sad and pitiful cr

All the rescues I do are enjoyable. Most are enjoyable while I do them, but some, like this rescue of Caesar in Denham Springs, aren't enjoyable until the next day. Caesar's rescue was so troublesome, difficult, and strenuous for me, that I simply suffered too much to enjoy it at the moment. The next day, however, I enjoyed knowing I persevered and managed to get him down safely and bring relief to him and Lindsey, his owner. The rescue got off to a great start, but it quickly went downhill after that. I won't bore you with all the details, but Caesar's back-and-forth movement from one part of the tree to another, his stubborn refusal to have anything to do with me, and the troubles created by the tree and my own mistakes led to my climbing 45 feet high in the tree four times over a lengthy, five-hour rescue that was exhausting for all of us. In the end, I had to set a trap in the tree for Caesar, and he gave me the gift of going into the trap after a wait of only 20 mi