"Neelah" - A Barn CAT in Trouble

Details

A text message arrived on the Kat Fone early on a Friday morning from Noelle. One of her kitties, a barn cat, had been stuck in a tree near Meridian MS for two nights, could I help? I arranged to be there later that morning.

When I arrived, I was greeted by Noelle and one of her rescue dogs. Noelle led me to an oak tree behind a nice barn and pointed upwards. Neelah was at about 35 feet in an oak tree, and crying piteously. Noelle explained that they had owned the property for about 6 months, and that Neelah came with the barn. She initially was not social, but Noelle and her husband had been working on socializing her and she now allowed them to touch her. They were waiting until she was more friendly before getting her spayed, but Noelle now suspected that they had waited too long and that Neelah was possibly pregnant. I hoped that Neelah would be friendly as there was a lot more tree she could climb if she was skittish. Noelle did not know what chased Neelah up the tree but was planning on keeping Neelah in at night in a shop to prevent more occurrences.

I installed a climbing rope at 50 feet, donned my gear, and started climbing. During rope installation Neelah actually came down five feet, and watched everything with interest. As I slowly climbed, both Noelle and myself continuously sweet talked to her, trying to keep Neelah calm. Neelah alternated between looking concerned and looking friendly, rubbing the trunk and meowing. As I neared her, she hissed at me but soon calmed down again. When I was level with her, I reached out and let her sniff my finger. She let me pet her, and I took this opportunity to scruff her with my left hand. She yowled as I lifted her off the trunk but did not struggle too much as I transferred her to my right hand and bagged her. Back on the ground, I handed Neelah and bag off to Noelle, who took her inside for food and water. I was very happy that Neelah had decided to be friendly as it would have quite a chase in a large tree otherwise.