Grouchy and Kiro

I have been enjoying a long string of easy kitties to rescue lately, so I knew I was overdue for a difficult one, and that difficult one turned out to be an unknown cat who had been stuck in a tree in Mandeville, Louisiana for five nights. John and his wife were very concerned about this strange cat who appeared in the Sweet Gum tree next to their driveway, and they did all they could to help it come down. They didn't recognize the cat, so they spoke to their neighbors and posted on all the appropriate local online forums, but no one had any information about it.

While I was told the cat cried frequently in days past, it was pretty quiet when I arrived, and I was not getting a warm feeling about it. When I climbed up to him, he moved a little farther out his limb, turned around, and squatted down there facing me with a "don't you dare" look on his face. Well, of course, I am going to dare, but I will do so gently and slowly. I reached my hand out toward him, and he started growling before my hand was two feet away from him. Still, I was foolishly optimistic that I could win him over in time, so I was patient, calm and gentle with him while I tried to gradually desensitize him to the approach of my hand. I spent a long time in the tree with him talking to him, offering food, and ignoring him, but I could not get him to tolerate my hand any closer than two feet. The one time I breached that line, he swatted at my hand. This kitty had clear, firm boundaries, and I was no longer optimistic about befriending this cat. That's when I decided I would name him Grouchy.

Normally, this would be a good time to set a trap on his limb, but there was no place on that limb where the trap would fit. In addition, there was another limb very close where he could jump to bypass the trap. The only option I had available was the catch-pole. I reluctantly went back down to the ground, retrieved the catch-pole, and climbed back up the tree. Not surprisingly, this grouchy cat was not fond of the catch-pole, and when I tried to slip the noose around him, he simply walked down the limb closer to me and stopped just inches from my feet. Getting the noose around him was going to be even more difficult now. I knew he would fight it, and that increases the likelihood that he will slip out of the noose and fall to the hard driveway below. I decided to just play it safe and let him stay there for a while and learn that nothing bad is happening even with me well within his two-foot threshold. He stayed there for several minutes but was clearly uncomfortable and eventually decided it was time to bail. He stepped over my feet and continued down the limb until he reached the trunk. Then he started making his way down the trunk. It wasn't the most graceful climb down, but he was mostly in control and, at times, even did it in the proper butt-first position. Once he reached the ground, he ran down the street and around a corner where we lost sight of him. Despite his attitude, he didn't appear feral to me. I think he is a tame cat who was just afraid of me and grouchy after being stuck in a tree for five nights. I'm hoping he lives nearby and headed home, but we will likely never know what happened to him. At least he is not stuck in a tree any longer, and, sometimes, that's the best I can do.

Later that day, I went to Prairieville, Louisiana to rescue Kiro, a sweet, seven-year-old kitty who I rescued once before almost four years ago. Just like his first rescue, he was stuck in a tree just inside the wooded area behind his house. I should explain that I unknowingly misspelled his name for his first rescue, because when it was spoken to me, it sounded like the Egyptian city of Cairo, so I spelled it that way. I spelled it correctly this time.

Knowing Kiro as a sweet, sociable boy, I was expecting an easy rescue, so it was very disheartening to see the tree he was in this time. The tree was an almost-dead Tallow tree with poor root support and only one significant limb which appeared to have little life left in it. Kiro was perched in the top forks of the tree about 35 feet high, and there were no other taller trees close enough which I could climb instead. As you would expect at the edge of a wooded area, there were the usual assorted vines using the tree as a framework for reaching the sun. For my listening enjoyment while I worked, there was a small pen only a few steps away containing a large dog who barked almost constantly in protest to our presence there, and to fully appreciate the ambiance of this rescue environment, I must also mention the swarms of mosquitos who enveloped me each time I stepped into the woods.

Other than that, the rescue went well. I climbed the tree carefully, and Kiro was friendly and welcoming, as expected. Since he was over my head, I held a carrier up to him. He was not alarmed by the carrier, but he was a bit reluctant to step inside, and it took a few tries and some reassurance before he eventually stepped inside. After I closed the door to secure him, we took a quick, safe ride back down to the ground where he and his family are quite happy to be together again after his one-night adventure.