"Faith" - Little Kitty, BiG Tree

Details

It was around lunch time when I noticed a missed call and voice mail on the Kat Fone. It was from Marie, she needed help for her stuck kitty in Clinton MS. I called back and arranged to be there the next morning, as I had a meeting that I had to attend that afternoon.

The next morning I pulled up at the house and was met by Marie. She told me that "Faith", a four month old kitty, had been stuck for about three days, and it had dropped below freezing the previous night. The tree was a large hardwood right off the front porch, and Faith was at about 45 feet. There was a strong union about even with Faith' s position on a neighboring leader. I was able to hit the union on my first try, and soon had a rope established. About this time, Marie's husband, James, arrived and introduced himself. I learned later that both James and Marie were U. S. Army veterans. James had done three tours in Vietnam from 68-70, and was severely wounded on his last tour requiring several months recuperation in a hospital. After Marie's service, she was employed by the VA and has been serving veterans in that manner for 25 years. All of this reminded me why kitty rescuer's do what they do; I was honored to be able to assist Marie and James.

I donned my gear and started climbing. Faith was softly meowing from her perch but not moving around. I was soon at height with Faith and she welcomed me with louder meows. I offered some her some kitty treats, but she was not interested -- she just wanted down! I donned my Kat bag, scruffed her with no problem, and started down. Back on the ground, I handed her off to Marie, who carefully extracted Faith from the bag and then gave her some warm welcoming snuggles. It was a heartwarming reunion, which gave me a warm glow for the rest of the day!

Finally, many thanks to James and Marie for your extremely generous donation to the Oktibbeha County Humane Society!