Cat Rescue Guy

I'm lucky. I worked my whole career for money, but now that I am retired, I don't have to do that anymore. Now I can work for meaning instead, and that is why I enjoy rescuing cats in trees. This means something to me, and it certainly means something to the cat. The owners vary in the degree to which it means something to them, but they all value it or they would not have called me. Some owners show it or hide it more than others, so I can't always know how much the cat means to them, but I love when it is clear that the cat means the world to them, and knowing the story behind their life together makes it even more meaningful. That is why this rescue of Lucki -- it is actually his second -- is among the most memorable and meaningful of my rescues to me. Lucki's second rescue was essentially a carbon copy of his first , and I recommend that you read that report to understand the whole story. For those with limited time or a short attention span, I will provide a summa...

Mikey is a cool dude. This orange tabby boy began appearing at Carlee's door in rural Opelousas, Louisiana for visits that gradually became longer and longer until one day it became clear that he had claimed this as his permanent home. That was fine with Carlee because she liked this friendly boy, and she was getting very attached to him. If he came from another home, he apparently felt no loyalty there, and no one reported him as missing, so Carlee claimed him as her own, and Mikey settled in as if he owned the place. Yes, this is a good place to be, and Mikey likes it. As is usually the case, we don't know why Mikey climbed the neighbor's Live Oak tree, but there he was resting at a fork in the branch about 25 feet high when Carlee found him. Mikey may have played it cool and acted as if this was not a problem, but Carlee certainly didn't. She worked hard to help Mikey down, and when all her efforts failed, she began asking for help. Mikey had spent one night in that ...

Three of the last four rescues I have done were for unknown cats, and now I have yet another one on my agenda. Morgan discovered this cat at the top of a tree at the edge of her rural property and tried to help the cat get down, but nothing was working. She did not recognize the cat, and her neighbors are not close, but the cat appeared friendly since it cried out to her and begged for help every time she went out to see it. By the time I arrived, it had been in the tree for three nights. I was a bit dismayed to see that this Sweetgum tree had no significant limbs except for the junction at the top of the tree, and that is where the cat had settled. With the cat occupying the only large limb in the whole tree, I had no place to install my rope, and that is an unusual problem to have in a tree of this size where the trunk is more than two feet in diameter. The only way I was able to climb this tree was to use a slow and tedious technique that is normally appropriate for small stems, but...

After eleven days of complete silence, I suddenly got calls for three rescues to do in one day,  Such is the irregular and unpredictable nature of my rescue schedule. To make it even more interesting, all three rescues were for unknown cats. To be clear, all these cats likely have an owner. We just don't know who they are because the cats got stuck on someone else's property, and it was the property owners who noticed the cat and called me. The first rescue was for an unknown, juvenile orange tabby who was stuck in a tree for three nights in a backyard in Central, Louisiana. The kitty appeared friendly and talkative, so I was expecting a relatively easy rescue. Installing my rope in the tree scared him a bit, and he moved farther away from his original spot. That caused me to create even more commotion in the tree as I had to move over and around some limbs to approach him in his new position. Even though he didn't appear to be highly distressed, he decided to walk farther ...

This is supposed to be the slow season in this area for cats in trees, but the cats don't seem to know that. I have done four rescues in three days, and I also had calls for two other rescues that resolved on their own. I don't know why the cats have been so busy lately, but I know that I don't want to leave them in the tree very long during this July heatwave. While I certainly do enjoy the end result of rescuing these cats in this heat, I must confess that I do not enjoy the process of getting them there. I'm not much to look at even when I'm all cleaned up, but after all the sweating I do in one of these rescues in this heat, I look like I have been standing in a  heavy rain storm and rolling in mud puddles. It's not a pretty picture, and the stink is even worse, but it is all worth it to bring an end to the suffering of these cats and their owners. The first rescue was for Cleo, a sweet nine-month-old tabby boy who was stuck in a tree next to his house in Sp...