Lucky the Kitten & the Great Tree Rescue

It was Thursday night in Alabama and a terrible thunderstorm was looming. I kept hearing a cat cry, but I couldn't tell where, so I went to investigate. I was calling "hey baby, where are you?". A nosey neighbor said, "yeah, it's a black kitten up in that tree". “You didn't do anything about it?” I thought loudly to myself (where is the love?)

Sure enough, it was a black kitten up in a tree in my backyard. It was howling and pacing on a tree branch perched 15 feet off the ground. I went and got a huge extending ladder. By the time I got a bright flashlight and the 50 lb ladder out, it was pouring down, almost ironically, like when you hit every red light when you’re late for work.

I struggled and slipped in the mud trying to get the heavy ladder up the tree, our house is on a huge hill, so nothing is easy or stable. Once I got the ladder in place, I was still about 3 feet short of reaching her, even on my tippy toes.

After about 15-20 minutes of me hugging onto the tree, I suddenly saw all the quarter-sized spiders reflecting in the flashlight beam - yep I mean why not, right? This story was missing spiders!!! I was able to coax the kitten closer with some food in my outstretched hand. While she was eating I could just barely reach her scruff. I whispered under my breath "you have one chance to get this right". I grabbed her scruff, she panicked and fought, but I held tight and was able to peel her down as she gripped into the tree bark. Eventually I slowly got her down into my chest. By the way, I had no idea if she was going to scratch my face off; she was definitely a little bit feral. Fortunately, she sensed I was helping and she hung onto me tightly. I got her down slowly, one rung at a time, continually convincing her (and me) that she was safe. My entire body was shaking from the adrenaline.

I got her settled into a spare bathroom and she immediately became a foot pumping, purring pile of affection. She was obviously in heat, which is probably the only reason why she let me pull her out of that tree.

That's Lucky’s great tree rescue story!