Cat/Owl Rescues
I started my climbing career in the mid 80’s as I morphed from a landscape contractor to an owner/operator of my own tree service. I got my arborist certification in 86 and by the 90’s I started getting calls for cat rescues out of trees. Somehow the local fire department, and injury wildlife museum, had gotten my information and were handing it out to callers that were freaking out about their pet getting stuck in a tree.
Most of these rescues were non-paying clients, but I felt it was good PR for my company and it gave me a good feeling to help these critters out. However, after a handful of cats, parrots, an iguana, and a couple of Great Horned Owletts, my loving wife told me “No more rescues while I’m gone”. She was headed out for a fun night with the gals and didn’t want to worry about me. As soon as she left, and the sun had set, the phone started ringing.
In hindsight, I should have listened to her, but instead I felt compassion for the first caller, a young girl who was housesitting and thought for sure the family cat was going to die in the tree on her watch. Since I was already headed out, I took the second call and said “Sure, I’ll be there in an hour or so”. By the time I gathered my gear it was getting dark, so I snagged one of those hardhat lights my wife had got for camping. The first cat was a young kitten about 30’ up and was so happy to see me. It gave me a hug and clinged to me without a scratch all the way to terra firma. The young girl was eternally grateful and assured me that the owners would pay me something upon their return. I didn’t hold my breath.
The second client was an elderly lady that had no idea how the cat had gotten outside. She said it was a docile indoor cat that had snuck outside and had likely been scared into the tree by a dog. I set my line and headed up with an empty rope bag to carry her down. I reached the cat at about 40’ and she was NOT happy to see me. The hissing and swinging of claws as she backed out a small branch was not helpful in the rescue process. After a couple of strikes on my hand and first blood was drawn, I was ready (had the cat owner not been home) to show her the short cut to the ground. Hey, I hear cats always land on their feet. But I restrained and decided while distracting her with one hand I would quickly grab the hair on the back of her neck with my other hand. Unfortunately, like Linda Blair in the Exorcist, she spun her head around and sunk her teeth into my thumb. I felt like I had grabbed a wild racoon as I stuffed her into my bag and shook my hand free. The client was happy to get her cat inside and promised to send me a100 bucks for my trouble. I never saw the $ but did spend some on a rabies shot the next day.
You would think replacing fallen raptors with their beaks and large talons, all while the parents are watching, would be more dangerous then cats, however, I’ll take a raptor any day over a cat. In fact, all I do now is hawks and owls.
Since owls typically find someone’s used nest to nest in, the conditions are often not that great. I returned a couple of Great Horned Owlets over the last two weeks, in both cases the nests were flat and hard with no sides. No wonder the little guys are wondering off the edges. We’ve learned that the parents are not particular about where we return the little ones. So we often bring up a basket, bungie it to the tree in the general area and place the little guy in it, it can even be in an adjacent tree, in fact it can even be different parents and they’ll still take care of them.
It’s always a pleasure to see mom fly back to the new basket and reacquaint herself with the newly returned owlet. Nowadays when I get a call for a cat rescue, I ask them if they have ever heard of, or seen, a cat skeleton in the tree. I recommend they give them a few days to come down on their own. For raptors, I’m happy to change my plans and head on over.
Look forward to seeing you in the trees!
John Traverso
Retired Arborist