A STORY ABOUT SNOW, COLD, WAFFLE HOUSE AND A CAT UP A TREE... Tuesday night a segment of our Critter Care team brave enough to drive in the snow met at our facility to care for our critters. We walked the dogs, cleaned kitty litter boxes and in general took care of our adoptable animals. When we were finished we decided to celebrate our achievement of getting all this work done with just a few of us in attendance by going to the only restaurant we could find open for business... Waffle House here we come. When we arrived at the restaurant we were feeling good and hungry so we ordered lots of tasty entrees off the menu. The restaurant was crowded, the food was great, the fellowship was even better and by the end of our meal we were looking forward to finally getting home and snuggling in to a warm blanket on this cold winter night. We all bundled up after paying our bill, said goodbye and headed to our cars to drive home in this winter wonderland. As I started my car and saw my friends leaving the restaurant parking lot I get a call from our good friend Dr. Amy Fraze who was dutifully covering her shift at the Midland Pet Emergency Clinic. It was 10:05pm and Dr Amy said she was on the phone with a lady in distress who had been trying all day to get a kitty out of a tree behind her house. She was afraid it wouldnt make it through the night and had called everyone she knew to call with no offers of help from anyone. I told Dr Amy to text her address and cell number and I would round up the troops to form a rescue party. I called Dave and Barb Smith, who had only gotten a mile or so down the highway, and they turned around and headed back to the restaurant... Operation Snow Kitty up a Tree is underway. The GPS said the address was 17 miles away in Knoxville. We headed out Alcoa Highway to John Sevier Highway and many turns and twists later we rolled up on the scene. I called the homeowner who had made the distress call and she eagerly said she would meet us outside her house. We met Donna on her front porch after negotiating her slippery driveway. She hurriedly ushered us through her house to see where the cat was located across the fence and up a tree in the woods behind her back yard. We could immediately hear the cat meeoowwing plaintively as we stepped out on her back deck. With flashlights shining we quickly spotted the cat in the tippy top of a tree about 30 feet off the ground. We stood there on the deck a minute formulating a plan and decided to go back through the house, around the side yard, behind the fence and through the woods to the base of the tree. When we arrived we were greeted by the neighbors friendly white German Shepherd who was glad to see us and it seemed like he had hoped someone would come to help the kitty also. Operation Snow Kitty up a Tree was now playing out in earnest. The tree branches were too far apart to climb and the limbs that were there were all too small to hold the weight of full grown man. Snow Kitty was meowing and wanted so badly to come down the tree but she just didnt have the nerve to shinny down even when I climbed on top of the fence to encourage her. We needed a ladder or this operation was going to come to a screeching halt and Snow Kitty would be stuck up a tree with a fate that looked bleak and very cold. We shined our flashlights in the many backyards up and down the street looking for a stray ladder with no luck. When Donna came back out on her deck after putting on some warmer clothes we yelled to ask her if she had a ladder. She initially said no but a few minutes later she yelled... Wait I think I have an old ladder tucked under my deck. She dragged it out to her back fence and lifted it over to Barb who pulled it through the woods to the tree. We got it set up, jumped on the bottom rung several times to anchor it in the dirt and Dave and Barb were glued to each side of the ladder for ballast and up I went. About this time a Knox Police cruiser pulled into the driveway of the house next door shining their spot light like they were looking for a burglar. Donna the homeowner had went next door before we arrived to knock on her neighbors door to see if they owned the cat and could help with getting it out of the tree. They didnt answer the door and had called the police because they thought someone was trying to get into their house on this cold night. The police didnt find a burglar in her yard so they pulled back on the street searching with their spotlight in the surrounding yards. They were going in front of Donnas house shining their light up and down back and forth at the time I was reaching the last rung on the top of the ladder holding on to the tree for balance. As I was reaching for Snow Kitty, who was just out of reach, the police spotlight hit me in the eyes on the the last rung of that ladder, in the top of that tree, reaching for a cat that I could almost reach. The police car came to a sliding stop like they had just seen a UFO right there in the woods behind that house. They focused and refocused their spotlight like they couldnt really believe what they were seeing on this bitterly cold, snowy, windy night. Right about then I stretched with all the stretch I could muster and felt fur and grabbed. I had Snow Kitty by the scruff, of course she was holding on to the tree for dear life but after a minute we came to an understanding and she let go and I tucked her inside my coat with one hand on her and one on the tree, or was it the ladder. I yelled below that here I come and started the descent down the fully extended rickety ladder above a gnarly looking chain link fence leaned up against a swaying tree with a happy purring cat tucked inside my coat and a white German Shepherd whimpering with relief below. Dave and Barb grabbed my legs when I got in reach and when I hit the ground we immediately headed out of the woods towards the street and waiting police car. Snow Kitty was shaking with cold under my coat as we walked out of the woods. By then Donna had explained to the police that we werent burglars, well maybe cat burglars, but in fact we were the Blount County Humane Society rescuing a cat out of a tree in her back woods who had been there since before lunch that day. The police officer looked at me with an expression of dismay on his face with Snow Kitty peeking out from my coat. We told him we thought the kitty belonged to the house who had called them to investigate a burglar so he escorted me to their door and knocked. After several minutes and another neighbor calling neighbor number one they finally answered the door only to say it wasnt their cat. We went back to Donnas who agreed to give Snow Kitty a place to stay in her kitchen in her dogs crate for the night out of the cold. When we left Snow Kitty was being pampered, drinking water and having canned food prepared for her. As we were driving back to Waffle House to pick up my car Donna texted me.... So far so good. Eating and drinking. Letting us hold her. Thank you so much! When I was reading this text driving with my friends back to our hometown I was reminded that... Every Life Matters, even on a cold and snowy January night in Tennessee...Happy life Snow Kitty up a tree... Steve ^..^~
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 22:00:01 +0000
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