Cat Rescue Guy

Cats have been busy lately, and this rather lazy year has ended with a burst of activity including these three rescues in three days. First is Tangera, a sweet, but shy, six-month-old tortie who slipped outside and climbed a Sweetgum tree in her front yard in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She was not comfortable with me in the tree with her despite my reassurances, and she slowly and quietly made moves to climb up higher in the tree to get away from me. I wasn't ready to secure her, but I had to prevent her escape. I picked her up and placed her on my lap with some gentle pets. Her slow movement away from me gave me enough time to get my cat bag ready, so I bagged her before she could escape. She didn't complain or resist one bit and is now safe at home with her grateful family. In a different Baton Rouge neighborhood, several people noticed an orange tabby that was stuck in a tree in one of the neighbor's backyard. Someone called Animal Control, and the Animal Control officer in...

This is the fifth time I have rescued Simon, and because I know what many of you are thinking, I want first to offer an explanation to ease your mind. Yes, Simon is an inside cat. Yes, his family knows he likes to escape and does what they can to prevent that, but Simon can be very sneaky and determined. Also, Simon is unusual in that he has a magnetic attraction to trees, so when he escapes, he runs straight to them. To prevent him from climbing, his family has nail caps put on his claws, and, in fact, this time when he escaped, it was just two hours before his appointment to get new nail caps. One more thing: Simon is a cool, super-sweet, cooperative kitty, and I love to rescue him. All that said, it's true that his rescue count is getting up there. Indeed, he is now tied for second place among all the cats I have rescued. He still needs three more rescues to catch up with the leader, but given his circumstances and youth -- he is nineteen months old -- I think it's possible ...

After rescuing Lily in Kaplan, Louisiana, I was driving home on the interstate when I got a call from Christie asking if I could rescue a cat in a tree in Geismar. The cat was unknown and high in a tree on a large common area marking the entrance to a subdivision. I drove straight there, and Christie was waiting there for me when I arrived. She pointed to the tall Cypress tree in the distance, and I dropped my jaw when I saw a tiny speck of white pacing back and forth on the top limb about 80 feet high. The tree is larger than it appears in this picture. The cat was crying loudly and desperately for help, and the crying intensified as the cat noticed us walking toward her. She became so excited to see us focusing our attention on her that she began to try to climb down. She could not hold on to the tree very well and had to pull herself back up on the same limb, but she continued to be excited. My plan was to install my rope on a sturdy limb about 20 feet below the cat and then work my...

I was contacted by three different extended family members -- all roughly at the same time and each without the knowledge of the others -- about a cat stuck in a tree in Kaplan, Louisiana. After I determined that these were all referring to the same cat instead of three different cats, I learned that the entire extended family was heavily involved in finding help for this one beloved, nine-month-old calico. The cat's name is Lily, and she lives with Doies, Ashley, and their two children, all of whom were very upset at her predicament and their inability to help her. It was already well after dark when they contacted me, so I made arrangements to go there the following morning. Lily's rescue was very easy. I installed a rope very close to her and climbed up to find her very relaxed and receptive. It was as if we do this every day. Because of our positions relative to each other, I decided it would be best to secure her in a carrier for descent. I held the open carrier up to her,...

Mark was holding his eighteen-month-old, indoor cat, Takazo, while taking a casual stroll around the yard as they have often done, but this time, something spooked Takazo, and he jumped out of Mark's arms, ran across the yard, and climbed a skinny Pine tree. He settled out near the end of a small limb about 50 feet high and spent two nights there refusing to budge. When I arrived at the site in Ponchatoula, Louisiana and saw where Takazo was, I felt very sorry for him in that precarious, exposed, and lonely spot, and I knew this was not going to be a simple, routine rescue. The video (below) is more effective than this picture at conveying his delicate and hazardous predicament. The tree which Takazo chose to climb was a bit flimsy, so I was not comfortable trying to climb it up to his height. Instead, I chose to climb the larger Pine tree to the left in the picture until I was above Takazo's height. There I installed a rope above him in his tree, and then I used the ropes in b...

Scooter's rescue was easy, but that doesn't make it less meaningful. Scooter had been stuck in his next-door neighbor's tree in Denham Springs, Louisiana for only one night, but the anguish he caused for Jeannie was immense. Jeannie loves her sweet, nine-month-old Snowshoe boy, and she was suffering more than Scooter who seemed to handle his confinement in the tree just fine. Scooter was very relaxed when I climbed up to him, and we became friends right away. Once I got into position to place my lap next to him and spread the bottom of the cat bag over my lap, he calmly stepped on my lap and sat still and quiet while I needed more time than usual to pull the bag up around him. I took him down and returned him to Jeannie who took him home and released him inside. Jeannie was so grateful that she wanted to pay me, but, as I always do, I refused her offer. I tried to explain that I don't want this to be about money. It's about suffering, hers and the cat's, and I f...

Tiffany and Todd's eighteen-month-old cat, Bruno, is not a bold and daring cat, so they were shocked to see this indoor-only boy run outside and climb a tree next to their house in Paulina, Louisiana. They loved this sweet, gentle boy who sleeps with them every night, and they did everything they knew to get him out of that tree, but all their efforts failed, and the local fire department failed as well. The situation surrounding Bruno's rescue held a bit more drama than usual, but most of the drama is not visible in the rescue video. T he video shows only the final action that brought this drama to an end. What you don't see are the five days of intense anguish, tears, and stress that Tiffany and Todd experienced while their beloved baby paced and cried at the top of the tree. They thought that no one could possibly rescue him, and they would have to watch him slowly die there. You also don't see the misery that Bruno experienced as he felt helplessly and precariously ...

When Jonathan's daughter closed the door to their home in rural Ponchatoula, Louisiana, she didn't notice that the latch didn't quite catch. The family left without knowing that the door would  soon open itself slightly and attract the attention of their indoor-only cat, Cessna. This new portal to a huge, interesting, outside world must have been irresistible to nine-month-old Cessna, and when the family returned home, they found the door ajar and Cessna missing. They searched all over but could not find her. The daughter was especially bonded with Cessna, and she felt sick with guilt over her mistake and the result it caused. After five days of fruitless searching, they were beginning to feel hopeless when Jonathan finally heard Cessna crying from a tree beyond a neighbor's house  almost 500 feet away from home. Cessna was stuck high in a huge Sweetgum tree, and had likely spent the past five days there suffering through some cold nights. It was late in the afternoon w...

I have enjoyed so many sweet, cooperative kitties to rescue lately that I have forgotten how to handle an uncooperative one. Harley was the last in my long, cooperative-kitty streak, and she was followed the next day by uncooperative Molly. Both kitties are gray/brown tabbies, both are female, and both were stuck in a tree for three cold nights. Harley is a three-year-old in rural Holden, Louisiana, and Molly is a four-year-old in Mandeville, Louisiana. Harley got stuck in a Cow Oak next to the front porch when a neighbor's loose dog chased her. She was about 20 feet high, miserable, and desperately wanted down, so when I climbed up to her, she didn't need to be wooed or convinced. She stepped on my lap, and I decided to take her down that way. She huddled close to me on my lap and stayed still until she was just a couple feet off the ground. She jumped down to the ground, ran onto the porch to see her family, and then went straight to her food bowl. I love rescues like this. M...

It is not often that food works to motivate a scared cat in a tree to come to me, but when it does, it can be a life-saver for both me and the cat. Normally, a scared cat, no matter how long he has been in the tree or how hungry he might be, has no interest in food at all. What's most important to the cat at that moment is to escape the danger he is facing, and hunger is not even on his radar. Offering food to a cat at that time is usually a waste of food and time, but sometimes, when I have no other options, I will do it just to see if it will at least help the cat view me in a more benevolent light. However, there have been a few times when the sight, sound, or scent of food acts like flipping a switch on the cat, and regardless of how frightened he may have been before, either he suddenly thinks of me as his best friend or he doesn't care who I am, and he comes straight toward me to get the food. While Aspen's transformation was not quite that sudden and dramatic, she ce...