"Luna" is Cold and Skittish

I received a voicemail late on a Saturday night from Charlotte, there was a cat stuck in a tree outside of her house in Sheffield AL. The next morning I responded, but Charlotte no longer could find the kitty in the tree. However, late that afternoon, she heard the kitty again, and this time was able to take a photo of the tree and kitty. The owner (Amanda) was also located; she lived a few houses down the street. The next day, Charlotte verified that the kitty was still in the tree, so I drove over and arrived mid-afternoon. Charlotte was still at work and would be there shortly, so I started looking for the kitty. There were three similar trees, and I got one lone 'meow' response from my kitty call so I started looking. By matching the photo that Charlotte had sent against the trees, I finally narrowed my search to one tree, and I eventually spotted some kitty ears sticking up from the center of tree where all of the stems emerged. The kitty ('Luna') was only 20 feet up and her fur blended perfectly with the tree bark, making her hard to see.  So I set up a ladder, opened some wet cat food, and climbed up , hoping for a quick rescue. Luna has spent three nights in the tree in temps that ranged from 20's to teens,  and when I got up to her, she was shivering but wary of me.  She took one sniff of the offerred food, then skittered up and out to the next branch.  

Oh, well - have to do this hard way. As I was setting up the rope, Charlotte and her adult son Carlos arrived. I gave Carlos the job of holding the net in case Luna jumped. I was soon at height with Luna's limb, and she out near the end of it,  but I was in range to touch her. However, I had learned my lesson - she clearly did not trust me and would never let me grab her. So, I pulled out the short rescue pole, and was able to grab her safely with that as she did not understand the purpose of the loop going around her. However, once the loop tightened, she was not happy and I lowered the struggling, hissing kitty down to the waiting net.  Back on the ground, we discovered that Luna's owner had left to pick up grandchildren from school. So, Carlos and I hung out in front of her house, killing time until she returned. I learned this was not the first animal rodeo for Carlos, he and a friend had freed a bobcat tangled in some fence wire, and he had helped another friend recover a large pet python that had escaped.  One of the side benefits to this gig is meeting interesting people!

When Amanda returned, Luna heard her car and immediately started meowing - her mama was back! We took Luna inside, let her out of the net and she disappeared into the rest of house to her favorite hidey-hole.  All ended well!