Cat Rescue Guy

"Hey! Ya'll want a cat?" The woman had just arrived at the veterinary clinic and was stepping out of her car when she directed that question to the staff who happened to be outside at the time. Without waiting or listening for an answer, she opened the back door to her car, picked up a small cat, and set it down on the ground. The cat, of course, was terrified to be thrust into this new, strange territory and needed a safe place to go. He ran across the parking lot, climbed a Live Oak tree, and settled nervously on a limb about 20 feet high. The noise from the constantly busy four-lane highway, which was only 30 feet away from the tree, was deafening and frightening even to me. When I go there, I wear earplugs, but the cat didn't have that luxury. The cat was now safe from any immediate danger, but he sat there frightened, uncomfortable, and insecure  as the woman drove away. As insensitive and cruel as this woman's actions were, we should at least be grateful tha...

After his owner died and left him all alone, the big, black cat migrated across the highway in rural Killian, Louisiana to a house where he fortunately found a nice family. They recognized him and understood why he had come, so they welcomed him into their home and heart. When he first emerged from under their house, he was covered in cobwebs and dust, so they named him Dusty. Dusty has enjoyed a good life there for the past five years and is at least ten years old now, so when he recently got stuck in a tree in the backyard, he joined that small minority of senior kitties I have rescued in a tree. While the tree gave me some climbing challenges, Dusty was an easy cat to rescue. He is a friendly, sedate kitty, and he was anxious for me to hurry up and get him down from there. I learned beforehand that he is very comfortable with his carrier at home and likes to get in it every day for a short nap or visit, and I was glad to hear that because I planned to rescue him using my carrier. No...

When people call me to rescue their cat, one of the questions I always ask is how the cat reacts to strangers on a normal day at home. Does the cat go up to them and greet them happily, sit still and watch, or run and hide? Often I will get an unclear or qualified answer, but Evan didn't need to think about it or qualify his answer: Tootsie Roll runs from everyone. It's guaranteed. I have a cat like that. My cat not only runs from strangers, he will run from me if he sees me at  an unexpected time or place. He has never been stuck in a tree, but if he were stuck and saw me coming up to rescue him, he would probably climb higher or jump out of the tree. In moments of stress like that, he would react to me just like he would with a stranger. Of course, that is not the answer I want to hear about a cat I am about to rescue, but it is good to know what to expect from the cat so I can know how best to approach it. In this case, I know to expect Tootsie Roll to feel uncomfortable wit...

When Cortney called me on the phone to see if I could rescue his cat, I could hear the cat in the background crying desperately. I could tell from the cat's cry that this was going to be an easy rescue. The  volume, pitch, melodic shape, intensity, and repetition rate all sounded like a young, desperate kitty who would be happy to see anyone up there in the tree with her. She sounded like a juvenile, and Cortney confirmed that she is six months old. Of course, I didn't yet know anything about the tree, but I went out there pretty confident that at least the cat would be easy. The cat, named Hogwarts by the young daughter, was stuck about 30 feet high in a tree in the woods next to their home in Denham Springs, Louisiana. She had been there only a few hours, but she was alerting the whole neighborhood with her crying, and the family was very anxious to get her down as soon as possible. By the time I arrived, Cortney had already cut a trail through the dense undergrowth to the tr...

Charlene was immensely relieved and proud. After spending the past two years trying in vain to trap a feral cat who had already had two litters of kittens and was now pregnant with a third, and after spending all that time trying to earn the cat's trust enough to let her pet her while she ate, Charlene finally had a chance to grab the cat by the scruff and stuff her inside a carrier for a trip to the veterinarian. Hooray! Success at last! She had already trapped, spayed, neutered, and returned all the other cats in the colony in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but this one mama cat was the last holdout because she was far too wary to go into a trap or get too close to Charlene. But Charlene had her now, so off to the clinic they went. Charlene is one of several saintly people I have met over the past several years who voluntarily manage multiple colonies of feral cats in various locations. They trap the cats to have them all spayed, neutered, and vaccinated, return them to their territory,...