It is very stressful when your cat climbs a tree and refuses to climb down. Most of us think that when the cat gets hungry enough they will come down, but this doesn't always work.
This past week our cat, Kahlua, decided to climb up a tree and not come down. When I first found him, day 2, he was only about 40-50 feet up, day. There wasn't much I could do that night, so I told him to stay there and I'll think of something tomorrow, as if cats really can understand instructions like that.
The next morning, day 3, I went to check on him and try to figure out what I can do to get him down. Instead of climbing down Kahlua decided to climb up to the top of this very tall tree. Now he was closer to 80 feet up and crying much louder than the night before. I cleared the area around the tree and tied a few tarps to protect him in case he fell when he tried to climb down.
On day 4 I tried to entice him by leaving a can of food at the bottom of the tree. Although he could see the can I was hoping he might be able to smell it and try to climb down, I also threw some up into the tree. At this point I was starting to run out of ideas to get him to come down.
On day 5 I had the idea of using 30# fishing line and a round heavy weight to get a rope into the tree so I could send a bowl of food up, again hoping the smell would make him want to climb down. This didn't work either. That night I started searching to figure out if there is someone that would climb the tree and attempt to rescue my cat. I search was a success. I found a site called, "Cat in a Tree Rescue" that provided a directory of people that will climb a tree to rescue cats, birds, animals, model planes, etc. from around the country and a few places around the world.
On day 6 I called "Dan the Rescue Man" and asked if he could come and rescue my cat from a very tall tree. Dan didn't ask many questions about the tree or how high the cat was up; instead he just asked me what my address was, verified my phone number and said he'll be at my house that afternoon. Dan showed up at my door, introduced himself and said he'll get his gear. I took him to the tree, pointed to the location of Kahlua and Dan started setting up to make the climb. Before I knew it he was almost half way up, moving quickly and quietly. In less than 30 minutes from arriving at my front door he was within a few feet of Kahlua. As I watched, it looked like Dan was explaining to Kahlua what he was doing and all of a sudden Dan called down to me saying, "I got him." Then Dan arranged his rope and came down the tree with Kahlua in the rescue bag. Dan handed me the bag and I quickly took Kahlua into the house where food, water and litter box were set up. Kahlua ate a few bites, then went to the litter box. When he was finally finished going pottie he proceeded to consume almost 2 cans of white fish in sauce.
After making sure that Kahlua didn't need to be rushed to the emergency vet clinic, I took a few minutes to chat with Dan about the donation thing on his website. He explained that he accepts donations to help pay for maintaining the website also sometimes helps pay for rescues if there is no one to pay. Dan doesn't charge a lot for the rescue, so not only was I happy to pay him for the rescue of Kahlua I made an additional donation to his site to help support what he's doing. He and the people listed on website directory are providing a great service saving animals and bringing happiness to families.
Dan should be awarded the Diego animal rescue patch because he is a real life animal rescuer.
Please visit "Cat in a Tree Rescue" website, look around and if possible make a donation to this very worthy cause.
