Fritz is Way Way High AND STUBBORN

One day after the 'Nova' rescue, Jena from Vinemont AL contacted me - her youngest kitty "Fritz" was had been stuck overnight way up a hardwood tree and they needed help (he snuck out an open door and got chased up the tree by a bad thing in the night).   From the photo Jena sent (yellow circle is kitty location) it was going to be a difficult rescue as the kitty about 75 feet up.  When I arrived the next day at their home atop Wood Mountain, Jena and hubby Mick led me about 100 yards down a slope to the tree where Fritz was hanging out. It was going to be a difficult, sketchy climb so I suggested that we first put out a catch net and then haul up a clothes basket with cell phone and food to try a kitty elevator rescue.  Because of the height, it took a few shots to the haul line for the bucket set up, and it took a good bit of time to set out my large baseball netting to catch Fritz in case he fell.  We lost about an hour when the rope tied to bottom of the basket for use in hauling it down came untied when the basket was about 50 feet. We were able to manipulate it down a few feet, but I eventually had to put a rope in the tree, climb up, and retrieve the basket. Finally, after three hours of work we had the basket right underneath Fritz and both Jena & Mitch tried coaxing Fritz into the basket via cell phone speaker.  Alas, no luck, so we left hoping that Fritz would be enticed by the wet cat food and would jump into the basket overnight.  If the basket did not work, plan B was to climb up there and snag him with my rescue pole.

Day 2: Jena texted the next morning - Fritz was now slightly underneath the basket but not in it.  Oh well, Plan B it was.  The tie-in point was the red-box in that first big union at 55 feet underneath Fritz, but I had to install a support rope from another tree to keep that long stem from wobbling too much as I climbed.  This took about two hours due to complexity of routing both the climbing and support ropes in the correct manner.  However, it was finally ready and I started climbing.  At about 30 feet I looked up and to my dismay, Fritz had spooked out the end of a tiny limb that I did not even think would support his weight, and now he would miss the net if he fell. Jena ran back to the house and got a tarp, and Mick and Jena positioned themselves to be able to catch Fritz if the worst happened.  I continued up and reached the tie-in point at 55 feet. I then pulled up my handled net and rescue pole, and a lanyard on each of the stems of the union.  I climbed up another four feet so that I would be in good range for my rescue pole. I used my extendable boat hook to prod Fritz a little way back towards the trunk, which increased the odds of being caught if he fell. I put up my rescue pole and was fortunate enough to snag him. The fight was then on to get him down and stuffed into my handled net -- it seemed to take forever but was probably only about three minutes but I finally maneuvered him into the bottom of the net. WHEW!.

I descended, and handed the net and Fritz off to Mick, who took him inside.  All three of us were physically and mentally exhausted from the 6-hour rescue that was split over two days.  Jena and Micks, many thanks for your patience and help during the rescue, could not have done it without you!