Cat stuck in tree (Update!)

Hi all. A friend of mine has a cat that's about sixty feet up in a tree near Lancaster. Ralph has been up there for five days. It's supposed to get cold and snow, so I found this site. Hopefully someone here can help before it's too late. Please e-mail me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Thanks,

Zach

Where is Lancaster?

Ohio. I'm sorry. I thought this was a regional site. It came up when I searched central Ohio treeClimbers. It's just southeast of Columbus.

Call tree services. Describe the tree- how big it is and how high up the cat is. Offer a reward of cash, or better yet, get the TV folks to cover the rescue. Call the assignment desk and tell them you have a human interest story. You can easily get a climber out if they know they will be on the news.

Make sure the climber puts the cat in a bag. Pillow case is fine.

I cross-posted a link to this thread on facebook, should get a response. Good luck with it Zach!
-AJ

Call tree services yes...but before you do that, call TV News. Tell them the situation and tell them, if I can get a climbing crew out here, can you get a news crew out here?

It's great footage, any non-dumb certified arborist will do it for free (for the publicity) and you get your cat down.

Good luck. I'd come do it if it was closer!

Call tree services yes...but before you do that, call TV News. Tell them the situation and tell them, if I can get a climbing crew out here, can you get a news crew out here?

It's great footage, any non-dumb certified arborist will do it for free (for the publicity) and you get your cat down.

Good luck. I'd come do it if it was closer!

Duane and Angie in Ohio are on the case.
-AJ

Great news! Great news! After two more days treebound, Ralph has been returned to terra firma, albeit a bit relectuntly. Ok. A LOT reluctantly. A WHOLE LOT reluctantly. Duane and Angie showed up and were setting up the Rescue Ralph command post when I arrived. I've never seen the whole tree climbing thing in action, so I was really interested. Ralph had climbed onto apparently the worst limb on the tree. Duane shot a couple lines up into the tree and hit a perfect spot and got his rope in place.
Angie got harnessed up and climbed fifty-sixty feet up to the limb. Ralph was not digging this whole thing. He had moved farther out onto limb about the size of drumsticks.
Angie came back down so we could regroup.
Duane shot a line directly behind Ralph and pulled the limbs he was on in contact with some slightly bigger ones next to them. He shook the limbs until Ralph transferred himself to the wrist size limb. This is when things got crazy, at least to me. Duane climbed back into the tree, and then all the way to within five feet of an out of his mind feline. He pulled up his big slingshot and was able to kinda lasso Ralph, (who was VERY un-cooperative), and pulled him towards him until he could get him by the scruff of the neck. Ralph was placed into an empty rope bag and the drawstring was cinched closed. He made a slow, controlled descent, (as opposed to the rapid one we had all feared). Once in the basement, the drawstring was let loose. Ralph EXPLODED out of the bag and into the safe confines of home.
The whole experience was unreal. I never thought a person could get where Duane was able to get. Thanks to both Duane and Angie for four and a half cold fifteen degree hours. Ralph wouldn't have made it through the night without you. Great people I met today, these two.

Thanks again,

Zach

Way to go Angie and Duane! Both are great tree climbers and nice people to boot!

100% heroes, Duane and Angie rocked it! Thanks for the detailed report Zach, that's got to be a first, using a Big Shot as a cat grab.
-AJ

The SideWinder FelineFinder....

Great story! As a firefighter, I've had my share of cats in trees and up utility poles. I once responded to a pit bull 60 feet down on a 6" ledge with 400 feet to fall if he slipped. Of all these cases, I'd take the pit over the cats any day!
Good job folks!

What a story!

Here is a link to some photos and a more detailed storyline on Canopy Chatter.

Challenging Rescue - Canopy Chatter

This whole thing was instructive as to the potential for synergy between tree climbing forums and social media (facebook in this case) to quickly mobilize a climb team in any part of the country (or world) where there are climbers available and motivated to get it done.

In this case Duane and Angie were the perfect team to get it done, between the two of them excellent skills and problem solving ability combined with passion, compassion and bare knuckle fortitude to work in very cold conditions with a super challenging cat position in the tree.
-AJ