"Jack" - An Old Kitty Up A Tree

Details

I had just finished my morning workout when I noticed a missed call, text, and voice mail on the Kat Fone. It was from Emily in Clinton MS. Her 9-year old kitty, Jack, was stuck up a tree again, in fact, the same tree. Emily had previously contacted me in November about Jack, but Advance Tree Care of Jackson rescued Jack using a bucket truck as I could not come out that day. In his first rescue, Jack went 60 feet up in the tree, running from the bucket even though Emily was in the bucket. Emily said that it took 20 minutes of sweet talking by her at 60 feet in the air to finally convince Jack to come to her. Emily had been keeping Jack inside since that time, but her teenage daughter mistakenly let Jack back out, and, well, he got stuck again. This time, he was lower in the tree, and moved between the red and green circles shown in the photo. I called Emily back, and told her that I would be at the house that afternoon.

Emily met me as I exited the truck. It was easy to spot Jack from the driveway as he was yowling loudly for help. He was sitting at the red circle in the picture, but quickly came down to the green spot (he sat on the stump of a limb that had been removed because it had been overhanging the house).

My plan was to put the rope at the red circle (above Jack), and then come down to him to prevent him from escaping further up the tree. Emily and I carried my gear to the tree, but Jack went back up to the red circle. I had Emily go back out to the driveway, and after a while, she was able to coax him back down to the green circle. At this point, I had a clear shot to the tie-in point at the red circle (45 feet), and I soon had a rope installed. Jack settled down at the green circle and was calm as I climbed the rope. After I was above him, I put a lanyard around the trunk as the trunk sloped away from me down to Jack's perch. I started slowly coming down the rope, using the lanyard to pull myself closer to the trunk. I had to add a second lanyard that went around my D-rings in order to get me even closer to the trunk. I was soon able to put a foot on the trunk near where Jack was sitting. He did not like this, and started edging closer to the end of his stump, looking down like he wanted to jump. I pulled myself closer so that I could stand on one leg next to Jack, then reached down and quickly scruffed him before he could jump down. He did not struggle as I bagged him. Some workers at a shop across the back alley had stopped to watch the cat rescue show, and I gave them a jubilant fist pump and told them the "cat was in the bag!". They responded with a 'Good Job!". I then descended and handed Jack off to Emily. After Emily returned from putting Jack in the house, she said that her father was going to help put tin around the tree to keep this from happening again. This was the only large tree in the yard, so hopefully this will prevent further drama.