"Ava" The Acrobat

Executive Summary

Kelly from Tupleo texted me - her sweet kitty, 'Ava' (rescued Feb 2020) was in trouble again, high up a pine tree and being harassed by crows. When I arrived the next day, Kelly led me to a row of large pine trees along the back fence. The trees were close together with lots of branches, and we could hear Ava crying, but not see her. Kelly told me that Ava had been traveling between trees. The wind was gusting at 20-25 mph, and two crows were cawing loudly, flapping around the tree tops. I finally just picked a tree, set a rope at 60 feet, and went up. Turns out that Ava was two trees over at 70 feet. The middle tree had broken off at 50 feet with an old nest at the top, this may have been why the crows were around. The continual wind gusts were swaying both of us around; I felt like I was on top of a mast on a ship at sea. My plan was to lanyard higher, then use my climbing hook to get over to Ava's tree. While I was getting set up, Ava decided to come to me. She went way out on a tiny branch that came towards my tree, and at the end of it, she reached out for another tiny branch that came from my tree and was a little beneath it. She grabbed it with her front paws, fell to it, and hung on to that with all paws for a while. This branch was angling up from a larger branch that led back to me. She swayed around on that while I frantically tried to get my lanyards set. Meanwhile, Kelly and her daughter held a tarp underneath trying to guess where Ava would fall, as it looked very likely that she would. The wind finally died down a bit and Ava slid down the tiny branch to the large branch, and walked right to me! I grabbed her without even putting on my cat bag. I managed to don my cat bag while Ava was in my lap and finally maneuvered her safely into the bag. Ava was a miracle acrobatic limb walker for sure. I was so concerned about Ava, the crows and the wind, that I never turned on my camera, so no video. Kelly, many thanks for your generous donation to the Oktibbeha County Humane Society!