"Summer" - Stuck Again

Details

I was passing through Meridian on the way to the 'V' rescue when the Kat Fone rang. It was June. The kitty I had previously rescued in Sept 2016, 'Summer', was stuck again, this time 60 feet up a skinny pine tree. I told June that I would rescue Summer when I passed back through Meridian on the way home from the 'V' rescue. Summer had been stuck for three days, and June had refrained from calling me, hoping that the rain from the cold front of the previous night would chase Summer out of the tree. Alas, Summer was still in the tree.

Later that afternoon, I pulled up at June and Johnny's house. Johnny came out to see me, and we both said that we were sorry to see each other again because it meant that Summer was stuck again. I was hoping that June was exaggerating about '60 feet' and 'skinny pine tree', but when Johnny pointed across the road, I saw that she had not exaggerated. Summer was perched at 60 feet, in a pine tree that had zero branches until a cluster at the top. The trunk was slim enough that it was swaying quite a bit in the north wind. There was no danger of the tree falling if I climbed it, but I am not crazy about swaying about in the wind, especially at that height.

The tree was down an embankment, with the trunk hidden behind some thick underbrush. I decided to just try shooting over the top of the tree and hope that the line would settle over some appropriate branches. I did the shot, then went down the embankment to pull the throw line from opposite side. When I got there, I noticed that the underbrush cleared out once you penetrated the initial veil, and I could see a very nice limb from that side of the tree. I pulled down the throw line,and a couple of shots later I hit the limb. The line draped over some smaller limbs up there preventing the line from falling down the limb next to the trunk. I pulled the bag up to get it off the small limbs, but it became tangled in the small limbs. I then jerked the line heavily, and the throw bag flipped off, back over the target limb and down to the ground.

All of this commotion was happening on the opposite side of the tree from Summer, but it was too much for her. She hopped down to the lowest limb in the cluster, jumped to the trunk, and shimmied butt first all the way down to ground with June, Johnny and myself urging her on. When she hit the ground, she raced back across the road to her house, with June following. We were all elated that Summer had climbed down, I will never complain about a self-rescue! The post-rescue pictures from June show Summer relaxing after her ordeal.