"CHristophe" Is Skittish

This is the saga of the 3-day rescue of “Christophe” from Florence AL. On a Friday night I noticed that I had been tagged in a Facebook post about a kitty in Florence that had been stuck since Thursday. I sent Emily (owner) a friend request, and received details about the stuck kitty on Saturday morning. From the photos, the tree looked good -- there were some utility lines in the background but they did not seem problematic (FORESHADOWING!).  I told her that either myself or my friend Meow Max Cat Rescue (Max G. from Athens) could rescue on Sunday, as we were busy with a Huntsville Cave Rescue Unit, Inc. mock rescue all day on Saturday.  On Sunday, Max headed out to do the rescue. When I inquired late on Sunday about how it went, I got back a ‘Hoo Boy….’ from Max. Not good. Turns out Max got his throwline (used to pull up the climbing rope) tangled in the utility lines, but the friendly local utility folks were happy to come out and get it untangled. When Max eventually got up into the tree, Christophe spooked and went way out to an unreachable position. Max did not have a live trap, so he and Emily set up a lowerable bucket with kitty food (this DIY kitty elevator sometimes works, so worth a shot).  The next day (Day 2) I called Emily, and Christophe was not in the bucket, so I headed out. When I arrived, Emily showed me the tree -- Christophe was hanging out at about 35 feet, and only about 5 feet from the trunk. I set a line at 50 feet (avoiding the throwline-eating utility lines) and pulled up my rope. Of course, this spooked Christophe and he went up and out on the same limb to about 50 feet. SIGH. So, I climbed up and put a live trap at the exact spot when Christophe had been resting – he would have to go through the trap to get to the trunk. I left, and received the good news from Emily later that night that Christophe was in the trap.  The next morning I drove back, retrieved Trap+Christophe from the tree. WHEW. Emily was relieved and so was I!  Chrisotophe is generally an inside kitty, so hopefully he says inside and does not go up another tree!