Tree trimmers rescue cat after 4 days in tree
Published: February 8, 2007
Four days and nights the bobtail white cat clung 60 feet up in a hardwood tree at the end of Tower Street in Athens. On the fifth day, she climbed 15 feet higher.
Now, 75 feet up with no food or water for nearly a week and exposed to bone-chilling temperatures and wind, the longhaired cat mournfully mewed to concerned onlookers below.
One neighbor, Mark Traywick, said he stayed up most of one night trying to coax the cat down from the tree with cat food.
“It’s been up there three full days,” he said. “It’s going to freeze to death.”
Traywick said he called the fire department, animal control and a friend who knows somebody who trims trees, but no luck.
Enter Mike Adams of Adams & Son Tree Service. Billy Daly, who lives on Tower Street, called the The News Courier, reporting the cat’s plight, and a photographer called Adams.
Adams arrived at the rental house Wednesday morning after getting permission from the owner to drive his big bucket truck onto the yard. Adams and his son, Rickey, came equipped with a noose on a pole, similar to those used by animal-control officers for catching cats.
Adams’ son, Rickey, climbed in the bucket armed with the pole and noose. Using controls in the bucket, Rickey maneuvered ever closer to the cat, but the bucket came up about 10 feet short of where the cat clung.
Rickey coaxed and bumped the tree with the bucket, in an attempt to get the cat to drop into the bucket, to no avail. The pole was too short to slip the noose over the cat’s neck or even nudge the animal.
Rickey lowered the bucket and Adams found another length of pole, taped it to Rickey’s pole and threaded the rope through the extra length. Up he went again. The added length reached the cat and he hooked the noose over its head, but the rope slipped off.
“Tighten the noose, Rickey,” cried Adams from the ground.
Rickey made one more pass at the cat, and this time the noose slipped over its head and he tightened the rope, gave a tug and the cat dangled free. Rickey quickly pulled the frantic, clawing cat into the bucket and tried to quiet it.
“I hope someone’s got a good pair of gloves,” Rickey called down to his dad.
By the time Rickey got the bucket lowered, the cat had stopped struggling and purred loudly in his arms.
“I’m just going to go ahead and take it home with me,” pronounced Rickey.
“No, you’ve got too many cats already, and so have I,” Adams said.
So, the cat, a female with sandy patches on the top of her head and rump, rode back to The News Courier with a reporter and gloved photographer.
An officer with Athens Animal Control came to take custody of her and carried her to “The Dog Pound,” Dr. Robert Pitman’s shelter, where the city has a contract, U.S. 72 East.
Shelter workers quickly gave the affectionate Manx her shelter name, “Angel.”
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