Another cat stuck in a tree, and another successful rescue. While it may seem routine for you, the reader, this is far from a routine event for the cat and its owner. For most cats, this is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and it is enormously stressful for both the cat and his owner. To them, it feels like a matter of life or death, and in many cases, it is. In this particular case, it was Binx, a three-year-old cat with a beautiful, thick black coat, who was stuck about 35 feet high in a small oak tree on the other side of his backyard fence in Bogalusa, Louisiana. Binx is an inside cat, but he has recently discovered the thrill of darting outside when someone opens the door, and that is how he escaped this time and found himself stuck in the tree. This is the first, and hopefully last, time Binx has ever been in a tree, and he was very unhappy about it. So was his family. To Brittany and her two boys, Binx is an essential and beloved member of the family, and they could not bear to see him stuck and suffering so high where they could not help him. By the time I arrived to rescue him, Binx had spent two nights in that tree, and while that may be common and routine among all the cats I have rescued, this was definitely not routine for Binx and his family.
While the tree made my climbing and positioning a bit awkward and uncomfortable, Binx was very easy and cooperative. Even though he was clearly tired, uncomfortable, and panting in the summer heat, he appeared very relaxed and undisturbed by my presence and shaking of the tree as I moved into position close to him. I made a lap for him, spread the bottom of the cat bag over it, and then invited him to step on my lap. As you can see in the video below, he calmly stepped on my lap and curled into position there as I pulled the bag up around him and secured him inside.
I took him back down and handed him to his family, and they walked him back home to release him. He drank some water, ate some food, and went under the bed to take a long nap before socializing with the family and curling up in a cardboard box. This may have been a routine rescue to the rest of us, but to Binx and his family, this was the end of anxious suffering and the restoration of the family, and there is nothing routine about that.
