Cat Rescue Guy

I love those rescues where the cat is sweet and cooperative, the tree is easy to climb, and the owner and cat have a heart-warming reunion, but this is not that kind of rescue. No, this was a scared, unknown kitten that would not let me get close, and it was in a miserable, vine-covered tree surrounded by water. Navin could hear the kitten crying in his neighbor's backyard tree in Bunkie, but he could not see it. It took me a few minutes using my binoculars to locate the kitten sitting in what may have been an old bird nest now flattened and filled with leaves and twigs. We knew nothing about the kitten, but Navin planned to take responsibility for it and find its home. As for the tree, it was covered with vines, one of which is poison ivy, and surrounded by water from frequent rain storms. There was no way to avoid getting wet on this rescue. As I climbed up toward the kitten, I could hear that he was feeling distressed, but my efforts to reassure him failed completely. He began c...

Usually, there are fewer rescues during the summer down here in the deep South when the temperatures are high and the cats are less active, but, at a current rate of only one rescue per month, this is the worst summer slump I have ever experienced. But then, within minutes, I got two calls for two different rescues, and both were in Lafayette. Fortunately, one of those resolved on its own, but that still left a need to rescue an unknown kitty that had been stuck in a tree for a week. It was Sam and Jaime of Wild Cat Foundation  who called me about the cat and agreed to care for it once I brought it down. The cat was in the tree on the right where circled in red and was crying to everyone below for help. The tree was not a fun one to climb, but I slowly worked my way up to the cat, and, before I could even get close to it, it climbed higher. When I climbed higher, it went out on the skinny limbs toward the Cypress tree next to it. As I struggled to climb up higher, I did not even no...

Stripe is a four-month-old, feral tortie who got stuck in a neighbor's tree, and, every time someone tried to help her, she would not let them get close. Surprisingly, even the fire department came out to help, but Stripe climbed all the way to the top of the tree where they were unable to reach her. This cute little girl had already spent two nights in the tree, and I didn't want her to spend any more time up there, so I went to help her down. As expected, she would not let me get close, so I had to use the rescue-pole to pluck her out of the high tips of the tree. I snared her just fine, but when I placed her in the bottom of the net and released her from the snare, this spunky girl decided to jump immediately out of the net. Now, that is no easy feat to accomplish. The net is about four feet deep, is almost completely cinched closed, and there is no solid footing at the bottom of the net to use to push against effectively. But Stripe pulled it off and did it quickly. She fle...

The cry that ten-month-old Phoenix made from up in the tree was so distressed that I thought she was losing her footing and feared falling, but, no, she was on a comfortable limb freely moving about. She was simply tired of being stuck in the tree in her neighbor's yard in Slidell, and she wanted everyone to know about it and do something about it. Now! She was only 30 feet high, but she was in a spot that was awkward for me to reach. Once I was close enough to reach out to her, she sniffed my hand and eventually let me pet her, but she didn't trust me enough to come any closer to me. From the way she looked at the carrier as I pulled it up, I got the sense that she was not comfortable with it, so I did not even attempt to give her a chance to step inside it lest I scare her farther away. The awkward position I was in made it impossible to make a lap for her, so I prepared the cat bag on my arm, inched close enough to pet her better, grabbed her by the scruff and pulled the bag...

This is Finch, a two-year-old, black kitty in Saucier, Mississippi, who got spooked up a tree and couldn't figure out how to come back down. He was stuck there for one night, and Isabella, the sweet, nine-year-old daughter of the family, has a special bond with Finch and was very worried about him. Finch was only 25 feet high, and he was sweet enough to make his rescue fairly easy. He wasn't afraid of me when I approached him, and he sniffed my hand and let me pet him. Isabella told me that he comes running to her when he hears her open a can of cat food, so I decided to use that to my advantage. Finch loves to eat, so I opened a can of food and placed it in the back end of the carrier. Finch stepped inside the carrier, and I closed the door and brought him down. I gave him to Isabella whose bright, beaming smile was just what I love to see and all I needed to make the long drive so worth it.