Freedom! Cried the "Little Man"

Details

I stumbled out of bed on America's birthday (GO 'MERICA !), picked up the Kat Fone, and noticed a text message that had been sent at 1:30 am in the morning. It was from Brandy (works nights), her kitty had been stuck for 6 days in overwhelming heat and summer storms in Greene County, could I help? I contacted Brandy and arranged to be there before noon. It was a three hour drive and I wanted to start immediately so as to get the rescue done before the worse of the afternoon heat arrived.

I arrived at 11:00 am to find Brandy waiting for me. She explained that "Little Man" is a 6-month old, inside cat who occasionally escapes outside. During this escape, he was chased up a tree by the neighbor's dogs. He had been up a tree near the road about a month earlier and had been rescued by bucket truck. In that rescue, Brandy said that Little Man ran to his rescuer so this gave me hope that it would be an easy rescue. Little Man's tree was located about 30 yards behind the house in dense pine forest. Brandy led the way, even though it was not necessary as we could hear Little Man crying loudly for help from the house. We eventually located the tree and I saw that Little Man was about 50 feet up. He kept clambering out on limbs and then coming back to the trunk, frantically trying to find an escape route. Fortunately, I was able to hit a limb near him on my first thrown line shot. I returned to the truck, picked up the rest of my gear, and came back to the tree to set the rope. During my absence, Little Man had climbed down to about 35 feet --- yay, less climbing needed! I pulled up a rope, donned my harness, and began climbing.

Little Man watched me anxiously as I neared him, crying all the time. After reaching his limb, Little Man retreated out a bit. But as I was putting on the Kat Bag, he came back to the trunk. After some ear scritching to make friends, I easily scruffed and bagged him. Back on the ground, I handed the Kat bag containing Little Man to Brandy, and we made our way back to the house. As I was loading the truck, Brandy reported that Little Man was eating/drinking and showing no ill effects from his long ordeal. The post rescue picture below shows a relaxed Little Man.