It was a year ago yesterday when I was called out to Rescue Fluffy. Fluffy was in a sweet gum tree and was only up there for an hour or so. It was brutally hot; it had to be high 90’s; I tried to talk Fluffy’s pet parent out of trying a rescue so soon, that Fluffy would not be receptive. But her parent said she would camp under the tree until she came down or was rescued. I had hazardous trees to climb, tree pruning to do, but when she told me her husband was at the ER I geared-up and went up.
Unfortunately, Fluffy went higher into the gum and I was spiked into a three inch top. I could not reach her. I told her parent that she would eventually come down, or at least come back closer to the ground; I could not go safely any higher. She was gonna stay with Fluffy. I offered to try to, using my climbing (life) line, bend the tree’s top over toward the ground using the life line run through a block and tied to my truck’s hitch. The tree bent slowly toward the ground. Six inches from her parent’s outstretched arms the tree broke with a gunshot of a crack. Fluffy was flung into the air and broke her leg. It was very upsetting for all three of us.
I kept in touch and Fluffy had two surgeries and, over time we got out of touch with each other. It was the first cat ever harmed in a rescue I was doing, and though it would not have happened if things had been done my way, it caused me great anguish and guilt pangs. This woman needed to be with her husband. Anyway, having lost my phone with her number, I went about my business. For a year. Yesterday I got a text with a picture of a healthy and happy Fluffy and more thanks from her parent. It made my day.
So, I’ve done 24 rescue attempts for treed cats. Two jumped and were okay (one was a freebee which I do for the ASPCA and the APS; I rescue treed strays as a volunteer), one broke her leg and is okay now and 21 were handed to their cat parents in two layered pillow cases, provided by the parents. 21-2-1. I guess.
If your cat gets treed, it will eventually figure out how to come down. If you can no longer wait, please wait until at least day three. If the weather is too hot or two cold, I will make exceptions. But the longer they are up, the hungrier, the thirstier, the more likely they are to receive a stranger coming up a tree with two pillow cases in his teeth. If you want to know, “why two pillow cases?” call me. If you want tree service, jungle taming/property clean-up, removal, storm damage clean-up, call me. My company number is my only number and it’s the phone I keep in my pocket. You will get personal, friendly tree service from me, Mark: 919-968-9469