the movies

I came home last night to see a note pinned to my door. My first thought was "oh geeze, what did I do this time?" as all previous notes have been from my neighbor who hates me (not the ones who stole Dora, the one on the other side) about how I didn't cut down a tree in my back yard soon enough, or how my dogs bark, or how the fence in between our houses needs to be fixed. However, when I opened it, the note read "your very small orange and white cat, is stuck up a very tall tree behind 1106."

My initial reaction was relief "thank God I'm not in trouble this time", and then "I guess I'll have to climb the tree and get her. Maybe I should wait for Austin so he can help out." While I was thinking over my rescue plan and simultaneously weeding my flower bed, the neighbors who left me the note came over to explain where Jeepers had gotten herself stuck. I walked across the road and as they pointed to the tree she was in, all my rescue plans went out the window. She was almost to the top of a straight up and down, dead tree. There was no possible way I was going to be able to climb up it to her rescue.



For a while I just stood there with the neighbors trying to coax her down while making awkward small talk. Then, I decided to go home and change into different shoes (I don't really know why I thought a change of shoes was going help the situation) and wait for Austin. Again, I figured he'd have some great strategy or suggestion that was going to fix everything.

Austin's great wisdom? First, "Rachel, we don't have to get her. We can leave her there." Then, "Maybe we can just throw something up there and knock her out. The ground's soft. She's a cat, she'll land on her feet."


So, after about 10 minutes of Austin throwing bark at Jeepers trying to either knock her out of the tree or scare her into running down the tree, she turns and it looks like she's going to climb down, feet first. Nope. She just decided that since Austin was throwing things at her, she would try to pee on him.


Needless to say, trying to knock the cat out of the tree didn't work. So, I googled what to do if your cat is stuck in a tree (I probably should have started with this). Suggestions included trying to coax the cat out of the tree with food (not happening), another suggestion was to call the local Animal Shelther (closed after 5:00), another was to lean a wooden ladder on the tree and let the cat climb down it (I don't have a wooden ladder. I don't have a ladder at all or I would have climbed up it to get the cat down). Notice, NONE of these suggestions included thowing bark at the cat. :)

Finally, I called the Fire Department. Afterall, it's what they do in 50s sitcoms or in the movies, right? Except, in the movies Mr. Incredible or Superman always flys by and resuces the cat before the fire trucks arrive. Unfortunately, Mr. Incredible didn't happen to be crusin' through my neighborhood yesterday so instead, 3 of Columbia's finest arrived on their noble red steed.



And climbed the tower to rescue the fair maiden.



She didn't try to pee on any of them.

So, now Jeepers is home safe and sound and I've learned that next time a cat gets stuck in a tree...leave her there. As one fireman told me "how many cat skeletens have you ever seen in a tree? Exactly. They'll come down when they're ready." Or when they're knocked out by flying bark.

An added picture- Jeepers home safe and sound (although a little wet from where Polo the massive dog licked her and tried to carry her around like his baby...or his chew toy, I can't really be sure, but I think his intentions were good) to put my friend, Kelsey's mind at ease :)