Our cat Kala ventured up into a tree in our backyard on the evening of Saturday, October 28th. She made it up near the top of the tree - nearly 5 stories high, and was too terrified to try to come down. We did not discover her until the next morning Sunday.

 

Because Kala had become stuck in a tree just 2 weeks earlier, and had managed to overcome her fears and climb down after only 16 hours, we were confident that she would once again figure it out. Yes, she was much much higher up this time, but eventually, she would get hungry or thirsty and climb down, right?

 

We waited and waited. She cried her soft little cries from time to time, and we tried to coax her down. We received all kinds of advice, including putting out strong smelling food. The fire department couldn't help - they referred us to the Humane Society. The Humane Society couldn't help - they referred us to the fire department. And the days passed.

 

Yesterday was the 4th day that Kala was stuck in the tree. We started to get desperate - it's a terrible thing to see your pet suffering. We knew she must be dehydrated, but attempts to get her wet with our hose and a couple of super-soaker water guns were futile. She was simply too high up. We placed call after call to tree pruning services. Most just had answering machines, and those that didn't flatly told us that they didn't do that sort of thing.

 

Last night, we called Geoffrey Favali of Artistic Tree Experts - the seventh tree agency we called. Geoff said he would be over first thing in the morning to try to help Kala down!

 

We had some terrible rain storms last night, but that was a positive thing for Kala, as she was finally able to get some hydration into her system. She survived her 5th night up in that tree without incident, although she was clearly weaker than ever.

 

Geoff came early this morning, as promised. He is an incredibly nice man. We had never met or spoken before this incident, yet he immediately waved off any notion of payment for his service, even though he had had to reschedule a few jobs to come out and help us! He explained that he was an animal lover, and armed only with his ropes, he jumped into the tree.

 

 

 

 

It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen - he scaled that very difficult tree and got to Kala. Using the rope, he pulled up a garbage can which he had lined with a sweatshirt. He pried the kitty off of the tree (despite her insistence on staying on!) and placed her in the garbage can, which was quickly lowered to the ground.

 

 

 

 

Kala managed to jump out of the can as it reached the roof of our house, but a few minutes later, the very scared kitty was safely back in our home.

 

We cannot thank Geoff enough for coming out and helping us. We think he's a hero - watching him risk his life to climb that impossibly tall tree is something that we and our neighbors will not soon forget.

 

 

As for Kala, she is none the worse for wear, though noticeably skinnier. She ate a bit, drank a bit, then promptly feel asleep in her favorite sunny spot, next to her best friend (our dog Max). She'll return to being a strictly indoor kitty from now on.