Carnival of Cats
Almost a cat skeleton!
It was late one night not too long ago and dirty Fila and I were in the den with the windows cracked about 12 inches. My cat was sitting at the window as she normally does whenever it is open. All of a sudden with no warning she began to growl, yowl or whatever cats do when they see another cat. Her tail began to thump the carpet and then BAM! Her head hit the screen as she tried to get at the other cat that must have come visiting that night.
The screen popped out of the window and my kitty was gone. dirty Fila looked at the window, she then looked at me and all of a sudden the dam burst. dirty Fila began to scream and cry at the top of her lungs. She cried the tears of the world coming to an end. She was so hysterical that I was scared for her! I was scared for me. There was no way to console her.
Our cat is an inside cat and only goes out to the back patio in her lease. She is leash trained. If she stays outside for any length of time she is tethered to a metal stake that is triangular shaped...you know like those dog stakes. She does well on a leash.
I tried to get dirty Fila to calm down. She would not. I told her that I could not go look for our kitty unless she did. I popped the screen back in and I proceeded to look for my kitty. It was about 12:30 at night so there I was in the darkness trying to whisper/scream her name. I expected the police to come rolling up any minute. I walked thru yards calling and shaking her treat bag hoping she would come. No kitty. After 30 minutes I went back home. Guess who was still crying?
I got her to bed but she made me promise to keep looking. I told her I would. I took an open can of tuna with me about 1am and did not come back until 2am. No kitty. I was heartbroken. I went to bed. I was up at dawn looking at again with a bag of treats to shake and an open can of tuna.
I began to call her name. Faintly and from very far away I heard her answer me. I called again. She answered me. She was up high somewhere. I tried to pinpoint where the sound was coming from. I called again and again she answered me. She is a smart kitty. Really she is. She was somewhere to the right of me about 3 streets over. I walked over there calling and she answered every time.
Where was she? In a tree about 10 feet up. At the based of the tree was a male cat. I guess he was after her and she ran up the tree to get away. I chased him and then began my coaxing to get her down. She was so terrified that nothing worked. It was about 6am at this time and I woke the people up who lived in the house by this tree. The male in the house came out to see what was happening and I apologized for all the noise, but that was my cat and I was not going away until I got her back.
He went and got his 6 foot extension ladder. It was not high enough. My kitty would not come down. Finally around 11AM I thought about going to the fire station just down the street to see if they would come with a truck and a ladder. I know that man was tired of me staked out in his yard beneath his tree. The fire station was about 4 houses away. I went there, told my story and all I got was a big fat NO! That fell on deaf ears. They were going to have to give me more than that. The fire chief told me that due to cats and liability to the men who might come in contact with rabid animals they no longer did that—getting cats out of trees. I looked at him like he was crazy. I explained this was my pet and she had all shots and even had a rabies tag on her collar.
The answer was still no! I thought tears would do the trick. I began to cry …really because I thought they were being mean. I was distraught when I went there to begin with. They got more details about the cat and where the house was and said that they would think about it. I left to go back to the tree. The man who lived at this house asked me what happened. I told him and dissolved into a blob of crying jello. I continued to shake the treat bag and call her name. Still she was not budging. The man decided that he would go. It was his house after all.
He walked down the street and about 10 minutes later he came back. He said they told him the same thing. They were not going to come but gave him a shaky maybe. He tried to call his son. He said his son has a big ladder he uses for construction that would get us up high enough to reach her. He called and called but his son was not home. It was about 1:00 pm by this time.
I decide to go to the fire station again and this time I was furious! I demanded to see the manager on duty/ the chief that day/whoever!, but someone was going to speak to me right now about getting my cat out of that tree. I told them I would also be calling the news media as well to tell them this story and to personally let them know what this fire house was doing to help a poor distraught woman and her distraught cat stuck in the tree.
Well that did it. Within 10 minutes that truck and ladder was there with about 6 firemen. It only takes one to drive the truck and that same one could have gotten the cat. Well there were six and all so very busy in regards to getting my cat down. The first man who told me no was the one who went up the ladder.
I think he was mad that he had to come. He was very rough with my kitty. He grabbed her by the tail and held her up in the air by the tail to get her down the ladder. He climbed down the ladder with her by the tail, his arm extended out. There was no need for that. My cat would have just climbed into his arms to get out of that tree. Her personality is very calm all the time and timid.
When he got to the ground, he handed her to me by the tail. I guess be expected her to be wild cat or something but she just crawled into my arms calmly. He seemed disappointed in that. That she did not go crazy, scratch me or try to ruin off again. I thanked him for getting her. He just looked at her curled up in my arms and then got in the truck and began to pull away.
The last thing he said to me was a question. “Do you ever see cat skeletons in the trees? That cat would have come down eventually.” The man who owned the house yelled to the fireman that that was not necessary nor was it necessary the rough way you held the cat by the tail. The fireman just looked at us both and drove off.
I wanted to kick him as hard as I could with a diamond buckled shoe!
I thanked the man who owed the house and walked home. dirty Fila was waiting. It was now about 2:30 in the afternoon. She grabbed our kitty and hugged her, smiling. Then she would look at her and begin to cry. For the next hour she went thru periods of smiling and crying whenever she saw the cat. All was well.
“Do you ever see cat skeletons in the trees? I am haunted by the question to this day. Do you ever see cat skeletons in the trees-my ass…sorry… shoe! Karma does come back to you. One day that will come back to that fireman, and he will remember that cat skeletons might just be seen in trees.
