Paris

As soon as I stepped out of my car early that morning, I could hear the most heart-breaking cries I have ever heard from a cat in a tree. The cries of desperation and emergency were coming from high in a tree in the middle of a wooded area, but I could not see the cat. As I stood there standing in awe of the loud cry coming from this eight-month-old kitty, Heather joined me and pointed to her about 50 feet high. The cat's name is Paris, and, fortunately, she is the friendly one. The other cat, Paris's littermate, is Jolie, and she is not friendly. Just as Heather told me that, Jolie walked up to me and started rubbing her body against my legs. I reached down and petted her, and she pushed her body up into my hand in enjoyment of this attention from a stranger. If Jolie is the one that is not friendly, I can't wait to meet Paris.

Paris has been stuck in this tree by her home near Youngsville, Louisiana for three cold nights, and the third night she had just endured was the coldest one of them. She had had enough of this and wanted down now. Her family did all they could to help her down, and they even succeeded in hauling a box "elevator" up to her, but she would not step in it and later climbed higher even farther out of reach.

Given Paris's desperation and friendly disposition, I was expecting her to welcome me in the tree with her, but she was afraid of me and stayed far back and watched me with suspicion and caution. It took some time to convince her that I was friendly, but she eventually came toward me to investigate. I was in one of the most awkward spots in a tree I have ever been. I was sandwiched between two large limbs at head level on both sides and another one close above me. Paris walked freely on all three of those limbs, and, while I could reach up to pet her as she passed closely on both sides, I didn't have enough room to do much of anything else. I tried to get her to step on my lap, but I could not get it quite close enough to her to make it easy. I didn't bring a carrier with me, and I would not have had enough room to use it anyway, so I decided to grab her by the scruff and bag her. There wasn't much room to do that, and I was sorry to be so rough with her, but that was the only choice I had at that time. I bagged her, reassured her, and then took her back down to the ground where Heather was waiting. Heather took her back home and released her there. After I finished packing all my gear, I stopped to see Paris before I left, but she hid from me as soon as she saw me coming. The friendly one didn't want to have anything to do with me, but that's okay as long as she is safe and happy back down on the ground again.