When I was about 11 I had a cat I loved dearly get stuck in a massive cottonwood tree over my house for 5 days, it was agonizing listening to him cry every day.
My parents were cold and heartless about it and joked that there would be a “cat skeleton tree” in our yard.
I tried everything, finally got an older sibling to help throw a fishing line up and pull up a bucket with wet food. It didn’t make it quite to his limb, but eventually the smell drove him to climb towards it, and from there I was able to coax him down. He was covered in ants and dehydrated but he was fine.
A couple weeks later he ran up a pine tree and got stuck for 4 days again. This time I fashioned a pole and just knocked him off the branch. He fell about 20 feet into a pile of leaves and pine needles and was fine.
He was my only friend for many years, living in isolated areas and being kept out of school I didn’t have much else besides shitty parents and siblings that just wanted to get high, the whole idea of people being heartless towards innocent beings in need of aid makes my blood run cold and the back of my neck feel hot with anger.
A couple weeks later he ran up a pine tree and got stuck for 4 days again. This time I fashioned a pole and just knocked him off the branch. He fell about 20 feet into a pile of leaves and pine needles and was fine.
I wasn’t 11 but as a young man, newly purchased home owner and father I was struck by an epiphany that I was able to get a cat after years of never ending moving and renting.
So I went out and go the greatest cat I could ever fine. A grey and white tuxedo.
Well within a month this idiot had climbed a Norfolk pine tree. A good 20 plus feet, right to the fricken top. *
For 6 hours he meowed and meowed. Now I was by no means a tree climber but I wasn’t gonna leave em and he clearly couldn’t work out how to get down.
So up that tree, sap, pine needles, webs, all in my fucking mouth. I climbed until I got to the top and grabbed that idiot. It was fucking terrify (I hate heights). I shoved him in my hoodie and somehow got down.
Thus he became stupid cat.
That said he wasn’t that stupid that he ever repeated it. Never went higher then the first branch of a tree again.
I want our species to be judged by how far out of our way we go to help those who have no impact on our own lives, and how much we value even the smallest lives and the connection between us and other species even.
Hard to judge the entire species when some people will murder other humans without a second thought while others wouldn’t hurt a fly. We’re complicated.
When I was about 11 I had a cat I loved dearly get stuck in a massive cottonwood tree over my house for 5 days, it was agonizing listening to him cry every day.
My parents were cold and heartless about it and joked that there would be a “cat skeleton tree” in our yard.
I tried everything, finally got an older sibling to help throw a fishing line up and pull up a bucket with wet food. It didn’t make it quite to his limb, but eventually the smell drove him to climb towards it, and from there I was able to coax him down. He was covered in ants and dehydrated but he was fine.
A couple weeks later he ran up a pine tree and got stuck for 4 days again. This time I fashioned a pole and just knocked him off the branch. He fell about 20 feet into a pile of leaves and pine needles and was fine.
Respectfully, fuck your parents. I’m glad you were there for that cat.
He was my only friend for many years, living in isolated areas and being kept out of school I didn’t have much else besides shitty parents and siblings that just wanted to get high, the whole idea of people being heartless towards innocent beings in need of aid makes my blood run cold and the back of my neck feel hot with anger.
I wasn’t 11 but as a young man, newly purchased home owner and father I was struck by an epiphany that I was able to get a cat after years of never ending moving and renting.
So I went out and go the greatest cat I could ever fine. A grey and white tuxedo.
Well within a month this idiot had climbed a Norfolk pine tree. A good 20 plus feet, right to the fricken top. *
For 6 hours he meowed and meowed. Now I was by no means a tree climber but I wasn’t gonna leave em and he clearly couldn’t work out how to get down.
So up that tree, sap, pine needles, webs, all in my fucking mouth. I climbed until I got to the top and grabbed that idiot. It was fucking terrify (I hate heights). I shoved him in my hoodie and somehow got down.
Thus he became stupid cat.
That said he wasn’t that stupid that he ever repeated it. Never went higher then the first branch of a tree again.
That’s a great story, I appreciate your sharing.
I want our species to be judged by how far out of our way we go to help those who have no impact on our own lives, and how much we value even the smallest lives and the connection between us and other species even.
Hard to judge the entire species when some people will murder other humans without a second thought while others wouldn’t hurt a fly. We’re complicated.
I am also terrified of heights. I think I’d just cut the tree down.
Did he ever get stuck another time, or was twice enough?
Yah he learned from the second time, never climbed another tree even as we lived in the woods.