Calvin
My communication with the family who discovered the cat in the tree in their rural backyard was limited because of a language barrier, but from what I learned about how talkative the cat was from the beginning, I assumed this was a tame and friendly cat, and I was naively expecting an easy rescue despite the fact that I never heard a single meow from the cat while I was below planning the rescue. When they led me to the tree and pointed to where the cat was, I could not see it at first, but at that moment, a squirrel came running out toward the end of a limb, and the cat came running right behind it. It was a futile chase in the tree where the squirrel had all the advantages, but that was the first time I have ever seen that. The cat went back to a nest against the stem of the tree and settled there about 55 feet high (red circle).
As I climbed up to him, I frequently announced myself so he could know I was getting closer and to avoid startling him with a sudden close appearance. I could not see him and wasn't sure where he was. It wasn't until I was level with him that I finally saw him settled in a nest with his back to me. Even though he now saw me, he made no sound or movement. This was not the reception I was expecting. I did my best to reassure him and let him know I was friendly, but it was having no effect. In fact, I noticed that he was now trembling, and that is a sight that just breaks my heart. When I reached my hand close to him, he just growled and hissed.
When I opened a can of food, he showed no sign of recognition, and when I offered the food to him, he was so disturbed that he decided it was time to exit. He stood up and began walking slowly out a limb away from me. Once he was near the end of that limb, he boldly jumped across to another limb and walked farther out, settled in a crotch, and stared back at me. I felt certain that, from that spot, he would not be able to return to the trunk because that would require him to go down a very steep and slippery section of the limb. It would be very difficult for me to get out there to him, but to do that, I would need to go back down to the ground to retrieve some additional gear. In circumstances like this, I sometimes have to resort to setting a trap in the tree, but there was no suitable place on his limb to set one, and since I was far from home, I didn't want to have to make an additional trip out here to retrieve it. My only choice was to try to reach him, so I went back down to the ground to retrieve some gear.
As I climbed back up to him, I passed the point where three large branches of the tree are attached to the trunk where the trunk angles sharply off to one side forming a large junction where a cat could comfortably rest (yellow circle). As I climbed past that point, I was stunned to see the cat resting there in that spot. I was not aware that he had been moving around while I was on the ground, and I didn't think it possible that he could come down his steep limb to the trunk and then another steep section of the trunk to reach this spot. He was now 15 feet below where I left him, and I froze in disbelief, not only because he was there, but also because he was so calm and undisturbed by my presence so close to him. This was a very welcome and happy turn of events, so I gathered my wits and settled calmly there close to him. Since he had no reaction to the can-opening sound earlier, I shook some dry food in a plastic container, and he definitely recognized that sound. It was time to try a squeeze-tube treat, so I opened one and squeezed a small dab on the twigs in front of him. His nose picked up the scent, and he started searching for it. He eventually found it and liked it, so I continued building on that with more dabs of the treat until he was licking it off the end of the tube while I held it. I used that to lure him closer to me, and he was soon calmly right in front of me enjoying the treat. I pulled out the food that I had already opened earlier, let him have a taste, and before long I was able to pet him while he ate. He didn't like being touched, but he tolerated it well enough. We had made great, unexpected progress, so now it was time to secure this little boy and take him down. Since I never expected to get this close to him again, I did not bring the carrier up in the tree with me, so my only option was to use the cat bag. Despite our progress, there was still no chance that he would step on my lap, so my only option was to grab him by the scruff and pull the bag over him. I don't like to do that while the cat is facing me because the bag over my arm is out of alignment with his body, but it can still work. I massaged his scruff while he ate, grabbed his scruff, pulled him out of his perch, and started pulling the bag over him. He did not like this at all. He reacted by fussing, wriggling and spreading his legs stiffly outward, and that made it very difficult to get the bag over him. He writhed his body out of my grip and began to fall along the trunk through countless sprigs of poison ivy vines radiating away from the trunk all the way down. He actually managed to grab some of the larger sprigs and hang on for several seconds, but he could not hang there very long and soon fell the rest of the way down to the ground.
I fully expected him to run away once on the ground since that is what every cat normally does, but this boy wasn't normal. He surprised me again by climbing right back up the tree. I hurriedly went down to prevent him from doing that, and I assumed he would jump back down to the ground once he saw me approaching him. This boy, however, was determined to go back up the tree. As long as I stayed above him, I could prevent that, but he moved around the large trunk to the other side. I followed him as best I could and tried to keep an arm or stick above him, but he kept out-maneuvering me until he was above me. At that point, we had a race on opposite sides of the trunk back up to the same main junction from which he had just fallen. When I got there, I didn't see him. He had stopped on a dead limb immediately below the junction and came to rest there. I was now above him and should be able to prevent him from climbing any higher, but now our relationship had changed, and I was not his trusted friend anymore.
Fortunately, when I went back to retrieve more gear earlier, I brought the catch-pole and net with me since it seemed likely that I would need it to reach him. The pole and net were already on the ground ready for me to pull them up, so I pulled them up to me and got prepared to use them. It took a few minutes to slip the noose under the cat's front legs, but I could not seem to get it in proper position around his chest just behind his front legs. Something I could not see was preventing that, and I kept getting the noose around his waist instead. When I saw that the noose was around his waist, I let him go and started over. When I finally got the noose where I wanted, I tightened it and began to lift him up to me, but as I did so, he slipped through the noose until it was around his waist again. I quickly tried to push him into the net I had ready and waiting for him, but he managed to slip free of the noose and get on a nearby limb. I moved the net above him to prevent him from going any farther out the limb, and at that point, he decided that his only way to escape was to jump out of the tree. That is exactly what he did. He jumped out into the open air and floated down about 40 feet and landed properly with his body outstretched flat on the ground. As soon as he landed, he shook it off, and I watched him as he ran away until he was out of sight. He appeared to be fine, but I can't say for sure that he was not injured in a way that was not readily apparent. I just hope his home was nearby and he went there and surprised his owner who has not seen him for at least 19 days. I hope you're okay, little boy, and I'm sorry I failed twice to bring you down safely. I don't know your real name, but I am going to call you Calvin because you are so smart and troublesome like the boy in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes.
