Nick,
The APTA came through big time today. I got a call this AM from a nurse...their cat had been in a tree for 13 days...two big rain storms in that time and I guess that kept it alive.
She asked what I charged for a rescue and I told her..."out of her budget" and I was going to end the call. Then somehow we started talking what had been tried so far to get the cat down...a nearby treeclimber had spurred up the 90 foot poplar, got to the cat at 70 feet, went to grab it and the cat went higher...higher than the climber could (or would) spur...it sounded like she said he took his spurs off and then climbed up some limbs after that until he was scared to go further.
I queried the daughter about that scenario later (she helped me do the rescue...yeah....somehow I ended up going) and she said he did not carry up a climbing rope...she asked him how he was going to get the cat down and he said he would stuff it in his harness and climb down...
...
Gawd, I would have LOVED to see that.
Anyway, I think the lady paid him $100 for trying. They had another guy come by and his plan was to drop the tree with the cat in it...a 90 foot tree...he said he could only give the cat about a 50 per cent chance of surviving...that boy is an optimist!! She paid him $40 for gas money to give her his opinion.
Oh...a friend of hers is a firefighter...he said they are not allowed to do cat rescues but they took the fire truck by anyway to look it over...they said, "No way."
So I guess my curiosity (or is it ego?) got the best of me...I told her I would try to get by to look at the situation if I had time today. I got the important stuff done (swimming with the grandson
) and then headed to the site.
Before I actually saw the tree, I thought it might be a skinny 30 footer or so...especially if someone was considering felling the tree with the cat in it. In that case I might have just lowered the tree off a block and the cat would have had a good chance. but it was a 90 footer...on TOP of a 10 foot dirt cliff. Terrible access to the base of the tree...super dense growth.
It was going to be a very bad climb...cat at the top of the tree and in the best crotch for a TIP. Very hot today, high humidity, I was pouring sweat just setting things up. I put a tarp at the base of the tree on the open side in case the cat pooped out and fell from exhaustion and was counting on the thick underbrush to cushion a fall to the woodward side.
And then along came John (remember the song?)...except this time along came APTA. My first shot went over the tree too far out to the left...trying not to hit the cat...it was about 15 feet left of the cat. Second shot I put on my new TreeStuff throwline (200 feet I thnk) and got about six feet from the cat and 6 feet above it...Lil Bit did not like this too much.
And when I pulled the new (TreeStuff) neon green bag back up to the supporting limb and the bag rocked over toward Lil Bit...well Lil Bit got plumb feisty and proved she still had some energy left...she caterwauled some and started backing down the tree...
I was starting to get happy at this point. Long story short...I chased the cat down the tree with the throw bag. Whenever the cat would stop and think about going back up I would pull the bag up, get it rocking and then drop it towards the cat. It took about 5 minutes to get the cat to climb down the tree...which means I never left the ground!! Two hours on site and never touched the cat...that's the best kind of rescue.
...yep that's me still smiling.
