"Marbles" - A 15-Minute Rescue

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On the drive back from the first attempt at rescuing Nancy, I had a text message from my wife and a missed called from Miss L. about "Marbles", a neighbor's kitty who was stuck in a pine tree at about 25 feet at her house in Starkville. They had tried using a ladder but could not reach him. "Marbles" is the brother of "Bobtail", who I had rescued from the same yard back in August 2013. Marbles made the same mistake that Bobtail made, and had tried to cross a chain-linked yard that was full of curious dogs. Even though Marbles had been in the tree for only a few hours, Miss L. was worried that he may have been injured when the dogs chased him. I told Miss L. that I would try to rescue Marbles when I arrived back in Starkville. I asked Miss L. to acquire a good flashlight as it was going to be dark. I pulled up at the house at about 7:00 pm, and Miss L. led me to the tree. Marbles was perched on the very first limb of a pine tree at about 25 feet up. It was full dark at this point, but my helmet light, street lights, and Miss L's flashlight gave enough light for the rescue. I put on my spikes and went up the tree. When I drew near to the Marbles, I started sweet talking to him, as he seemed a nice, calm kitty. However, I must have smelled bad, because he turned around on the limb, and started shimmying down the other side of the trunk -- at about 10 feet, he jumped off the tree, cleared the fence, hit the ground, and headed for his home. I climbed down and started packing up. After about 15 minutes, Marbles' owner came out and said that he was eating happily in his kitchen. Marbles had a couple of scratches on his nose from where he tried to go through the chain link fence, but otherwise seemed ok. The picture to the left is Marbles after his tree adventure. So, I had been in the tree that day for a total of about 3 hours, and had yet to touch a kitty. I need to really, really work on my kitty whispering!

It had been a somewhat frustrating day. To make myself feel better, I have posted a graphic-novel rescue story below in which things go much better than they went today.