Cat Rescue Guy

Milo is a seven-month-old kitty in Walker, Louisiana who always runs away from strangers, and that is exactly what I expected from him when I started climbing up to him in the tall Pine tree in his next-door neighbor's yard where he had already spent one night. Milo didn't wait for me to get close. He started climbing higher as soon as it was clear that I was headed in his direction. I felt lucky when I saw him go out on a short limb because he would be trapped there once I climbed up level with him. However, when I got close enough to see that his limb was very dead, I became worried that it could break at any moment without warning, and that is where the video (below) begins. I spent several minutes there with Milo trying to calm him down and prove my friendly intentions, and while he did calm down and come to accept me somewhat, I could not get him to come any closer to me. I wanted him closer, not only so that I could reach him, but also to reduce the stress on the limb. Th...

The last few rescues I did were all tough, and they put me in a temporary low point where I questioned why I was doing this. This happens every now and then, and I don't stay in that low point very long. All I need to do is see the joy and relief in the faces of the cat owners when I give their cat safely back to them, and it also helps to see the post-rescue pictures of the cat at home in its comfortable, soft bed. This time, however, in case that was not enough, the next day, I was presented with a very strong reason why rescuing a cat in a tree is worth the great trouble that it sometimes can be. It was nearing sunset time when Jackie called me to see if I could rescue her cat, Lucki, who was stuck in a tree in her backyard in Abita Springs, Louisiana. Often, people will type a message to me to ask for a rescue, but it is so much better when they call, not only because the exchange of information goes much faster, but also because I can gather much more information about the sit...

Either I am losing my touch or I just happened to have three tough kitties in a row to rescue on consecutive days, or maybe it's both, but regardless, it has been a week where I find myself asking, "Why am I doing this?" Of course, I know the answer, but long, difficult rescues can cause me to forget temporarily and question my ability, and these three kitties caused me to do exactly that. First was Baby Belle, a three-year-old kitty in Central, Louisiana who is normally just as sweet as her name sounds, but she took great offense at my audacious appearance in her Cypress tree which she had clearly claimed as her own by spending one night there. When I climbed the tree and was close enough to reach out to her, she let me know how outraged she was by growling, hissing, spitting and swatting at my hand. Of course, I backed off, but, over the next hour, I had no luck in reassuring her in any way or calming her demeanor in the slightest. All I got was more growling, hissing, ...

Cinnamon was one tough cookie. He wasn't spicy, but he was calmly defiant like a statue that could not be budged. He was 60 feet high and far out at the end of a long, arching branch of a very large oak tree where I could not go. I was about 10 feet from him, and we had a long, friendly standoff while I waited for him to come to me and he waited for me to leave. I'm a very patient rescuer because cats often need a long time to see that I am not a threat. I am so patient that the cat owners sometimes get bored and tired and go inside to wait for me to finish. I was patient with Cinnamon too, but Cinnamon was more patient than I was. In the standoff and patience game, Cinnamon won. Cinnamon is a two-year-old orange tabby boy who was stuck in a tree in Leonville, Louisiana for five nights. Silly me. I thought his rescue would be easy. He was originally stuck on a short, dead stub about 30 feet high in a tree in a long line of fence-line trees between a corn field and a long, hard-...

Nala desperately needed help. This six-month-old kitty was stuck at least 40 feet high in a tree at the edge of a wooded area next to a used car lot in Albany, Louisiana, and she cried out constantly and loudly for help. Her family was down below talking to her, but they did not appear to be helping her down at all. She spent the night in the tree, and her family was back there the next morning talking to her again, but they still did not help her down. They walked around, talked to each other, and went out of sight for long periods of time, but they didn't do anything to help her. Nala continued to cry out for help, but no one appeared to care, and, again, she spent another hopeless night in the tree. Nala could not know it, but her family was feeling just as desperate as she was, and they were trying very hard to figure out a way to help her down. I could hear how desperate and worried they were when they called me, and I went over there right away. Nala was as ready as she could...

One thing I have learned about cat owners when their cat gets stuck in a tree is that they tend to exaggerate the length of time the cat has been stuck. If the cat was stuck one night, they call it two days because the cat went up at the end of one day and was still there the next morning even though the total elapsed time was much less than 24 hours. When the cat has been stuck three nights, the owners feel it has been a week. If the cat was stuck a week, they call it two weeks. I do not blame or fault them one bit because time truly drags slowly when you're stressed about the cat, and the time period most certainly feels much longer than it actually is. I'm sure I would do the same, but t o understand the cat I am about to rescue, I need to know the actual length of time, so, in addition to asking  how long the cat was in the tree, I also ask for more details to get them to think about it more precisely so I can learn if they are exaggerating or not. When I asked Amanda how l...