Kolby/Panther/Vlad/Izzie/Lucy/Oreo

This post is about six rescues done in the last last part of April, and the first two weeks of May, including three in one day.

Kolby's mom (Huntsville) contacted me near the end of April - their young kitty had been stuck for a couple of nights, could I help? I was soon at the house where Koby as hanging out at about 20 feet, desperate for a rescue.  When I reached Kolby, he practically jumped in my lap. Back on the ground he was taken inside for food, water, love - easy-peasy rescue!

In early May, Patricia from Florence contacted me - her outside adopted stray kitty "Panther" had been stuck up a tree for two nights and needed help.  I was met at the house by Patricia's daughter, who led me to a tree in the back by a creek, where Panther was sitting in a union at about 25 feet. I had to put my rope about 5 feet under Panther's union as the next limbs were way up, hidden by foliage.  When I reached the limb, Panther let me know that he was not happy to see me, by mad-yowling at me. He kept looking up the tree and  I was concerned that he might bolt up higher to where I would not be able to reach him.  I managed to get him to look at one side of the tree while I pulled myself up behind him on the other. I made a quick nab to keep him from going higher, but he was a strong, large cat and began wiggling free. I managed to drop him into some understory, where he clung for a while, then dropped the rest of the way to ground, after which he ran across some tracks and into a culvert - an obvious safe place. Unfortunately, Panther never showed back up at Patricia's house.  He had been chased up the tree by coyotes, and perhaps he thought it was time to move on to new surroundings. I keep hoping he will show up but after two weeks it is a slim chance.

The next day I was contacted about Vlad in Huntsville - a inside-only kitty who had escaped outside and bolted up a tree in the backyard. On arrival, Vlad's mom let me into the plank-board fenced yard, where Vlad was way out on a horizontal limb but only about 20 feet up. I put my rope near Vlad (with a support rope back to the main tree) and was soon at height with Vlad. He was not happy to see me and would not budge.  The back door was wide open so the plan was that if Vlad jumped, he would hopefully just run inside. I tried to use the short grab pole but I bungled the grab and Vlad dropped to the ground. However, instead of running into the open back door, he ran around the side of house and squeezed through a crack in the fence and escaped into the neighborhood. Fortunately, Vlad showed up at 2:30 am on the porch a couple of nights later much to the relief of Vlad's mom (and me!).

Two weeks later I had three rescues in one day. The first was in Florence - Jason contacted me - their family kitty "Izzy" had been stuck overnight and they needed help.  When I arrived, Izzie was in a sketchy unclimbable tree, but there was a horizontal limb that had broken out of a neighboring tree, and lodged in Izzy's sketchy tree.  Izzy moved back and forth on this limb but did not know how to come down. I put my rope in the neighboring tree and was soon at height with the long horizontal limb.  After a lot of sweet talking by Izzy's folks and some food bribes, Izzy finally made his way over to me where I nabbed him.  Izzy was soon back inside where a 3 year old girl was happy to see him!

On the drive back, I stopped in Madison to rescue "Lucy". She is an inside only cat, escaped outside, went up a pine tree to about 30 feet. I was soon at height with Lucy but she was out of at the end of the limb and not too happy to see me.   Again, it took a lot of sweet talking and food bribes, but Lucy eventually decided that I was ok and came within  KatBag-nab-range.   She was brought inside by Nathan where she was reunited with her precious cat tower.

The last rescue of the day was in Owen's Crossroads  - Nalee texted me and told me their newly adopted shelter kitty "Oreo"  after being given some outdoor freedom had ended up in small tree in a neighbor's yard.  The tree was a small magnolia, but Oreo was at the tip-top of the tree, forcing me to use my long rescue pole to nab him. Oreo was not happy with the nab but was soon back on the ground with Nalee, where he was taken inside and caught up on missed food and loving. See less