Chrissy

How am I supposed to rescue a skittish cat at the top of a dead tree? That was the problem I faced when I was called out to Watson, Louisiana to rescue Chrissy, a one-year-old calico who had been stuck in the tree for one night. Chrissy was 40 feet high on the only remaining limb at the top of a dead tree whose top had broken off. Much of the bark was missing and the exposed wood was clearly rotting. The usual way to rescue a cat in a tree is to climb the tree, but this tree was dead and unsafe to climb, so what can I do?

Of course, the simplest option is to use a bucket truck, but I don't have a bucket truck, and even if one were available, it was not clear if it could get close enough to reach the dead tree, and it would have to park in the road where it would be blocking traffic in both directions. Another option is to install a "highline," that is, a long rope pulled very tightly between two taller trees on opposite sides of the dead tree and attach my rope to the highline where I can hover over the dead tree without putting any weight or pressure on it. Unfortunately, there were no taller trees on opposite sides of the dead tree, so the highline option was out. Another option is to climb a taller tree close to the dead tree and try to reach the cat from there. There was one tree that was fairly close, but it would allow me to get only at roughly the same height as the cat, and, because it leaned away from the dead tree, it still left me about 14 feet away. That is too far to reach the cat with my long catch pole, but I can reach it with my net if I add some extension poles to it. I never use my net to capture a cat because it is too difficult to get the cat inside even in the best of circumstances. I am far more likely to cause the cat to fall, so I rarely ever use it, especially with long extension poles making it even more unwieldy. The only other solution I had was to haul an "elevator" up to the cat. An elevator is just a box which is tied to a rope which I pull to raise the elevator up to the cat, wait for her to jump inside for the food I place there, and then lower her to the ground. It's a simple concept that really works in some cases, but it does not work very often with skittish cats. Still, it was worth a try.

To get a rope over the top of the tree, I used my giant sling-shot to shoot a weight attached to a string over the top of the tree. My aim was accurate enough, but the wind kept blowing the string so far off course that it was futile to continue. However, when I shot the weight directly into the wind, then the string stayed on course, and I succeeded in getting a rope installed. I attached the rope to the box, placed some food in the box, and pulled the box slowly up to Chrissy. Chrissy didn't like that box one bit. In spite of her highly distressed cries, she actually had enough curiosity at least to look inside the box, but there was no way she was going to get inside it. She moved out the limb to get farther away, so I knew this was not going to work. I lowered the box and prepared for the only option I had left which was to climb the nearby tree.

When I climbed up level with Chrissy, I prepared the net. I should explain that what I am calling a net is actually one in which I replaced the netting with a bag I made with rip-stop nylon. This "bagnet" does not get snagged on the tree or the cat nearly as easily as netting, and it is also much lighter which is a big advantage when I have to hold it out so far away from me. My plan was to place the net on the far side of Chrissy's limb and slide it back toward her while trying to slip it under her feet. I reached the net out beyond Chrissy and placed it on her limb, but I never had a chance to slide it toward her because she was so frightened by it that she moved onto the trunk and began to climb down backward. I was delighted at this turn of events because this was the safest and best way for her to get down. She continued to steadily work her way backwards down all forty feet of the tree until she reached the ground. She did a great job and did it properly, and I hope she remembers this new skill she just learned if she ever gets in a tree again. Once on the ground, Chrissy trotted back home where Cindy was watching and calling for her.

So, why didn't Chrissy do that sooner? It's simply because it was too scary. She was afraid of falling and didn't know if she could climb down safely. The only reason she did it now was because something even more frightening appeared on her limb and forced her into action. She faced her fear only because she was avoiding a greater and immediate fear. While it did not happen at this rescue, very often I hear people on the ground call the cat foolish or stupid for spending so much miserable time in the tree when she had the ability to go down on her own at any time. I can't help but think that we are no different. At some point in our life, in one way or another, we have all been stuck miserably in a mental tree of sorts afraid to climb down even when we know how. Fear is the Great Motivator and the Great Paralyzer for both cats and people. We can be just as foolish as cats, so the next time we see a cat stuck in a tree, maybe we can be more sympathetic, and the next time we find ourselves stuck in fear, maybe we can think of Chrissy and summon the courage to face it.