Cat rescuer

I hate cats, but I love serving people. I have kind of a love/hate relationship with rescuing cats. There’s just nothing quite like the joy on someone’s face when you return their cat. You just don’t typically get that same reaction when you prune their trees...‍♂️ This stupid cat was stuck for 3 days in 90° heat before I got him down. Such dumb animals...
 

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I used to work with Dan Kraus who started www.catinatreerescue.com , "In 2003, Dan Kraus started this website . If you need help rescuing your cat, there is a directory of climbers with locations around the world, committed to rescuing cats stuck in trees. Kraus has traveled all around the Puget Sound and Seattle area since 1999 and has rescued about 1,000 cats."

His method for cat rescues (at the time at least) was that he made a loose bag that had a leather glove sewn into it, allowing him to get the cat by the scruff of it's neck, then turn the bag inside-out, capturing it in the bag and closing it.

Only done two myself (plus rockets, quad copters, etc) but got and kept a fun note from one of them:

00 cat note.jpg
 
My only rescue was uneventful, though the tree itself was unnerving. I’ve headed out for two others, but the cats fell out before I arrived.
 
I've probably done a dozen cat rescues over the years. I catch them with a lobster snare and stuff then in a duffel bag and then lower them to the ground on the tail of my climbing rope.

It's not all that pretty but I've tried grabbing a cat at height and it's not worked out well for me. Once my business partner went up in a bucket and grabbed a cat. It tore him up and it ended up being dropped 30 ft or so.....and it ran off. Hard to believe.

Lobster snare.jpg
 
Climbing Innovations has a cat rescue bag. I've only done one cat rescue, and the next week the bag was on sale, so I bought it...haven't used it since.

The one I did, I used a pillow case and nearly dropped it when trying to stuff it in!

My policy is: "half price, if I can just use the big shot".
 
I've climbed with Normer a couple times. He is a really great guy to spend time in a tree with. I first met him 60 feet up in a skinny sweetgum at @Richard Mumford-yoyoman 's place. I was up there hanging out by myself. He climbed up and chatted me up for 45 minutes. I was a bit surprised because most of what I do in a tree is solitary and it was weird to have a gentlemanly meet and greet. That's rec climbing for me - it gets me out of my rut in unexpected ways. He stayed up for a while after I bailed and I swear I saw one of his first rescues; @Richard Mumford-yoyoman stuck a stuffed animal in the top of a sapling adjacent to the sweetgum and Normer went after it. That rescue reminds me of how far we can come in a short amount of time. Normer mugged the sapling en route to securing the stuffed animal. It now reminds me of some of my early efforts at different tasks. Now, Normer traverses between trees to access dead trees at some pretty high heights. He basically can go anywhere and do anything necessary to secure a cat to ground. I have a ton of respect for his evolution - both from starting out -> competency and then to pushing the envelope of what is possible in a tree. Normer may be making the largest steps in innovation in the tree industry right now since the Rope Wrench and the Akimbo have cooled off. There was a gap in production cat rescue - all of us just do it occasionally. Normer has really brought a next level to it. In addition to being an extremely effective cat rescuer, Normer is a senior. Most recently, we hung out at Two Hawk Hammock in Florida in a large live oak tree, and did event planning on Zoom for our presentations in the 2020 Rendezvous. Here is his presentation:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=628400074545072
 
@colb Your video won't show. What are you presenting on? So i've done literally hundreds of cat rescues. Only had 2 jumpers and never been pissed on. I'd bring 1 thick leather glove and grab them by the scruff and jam them in the bag. Side note, don't open bag until in the house! I was on Dan's site and we have the PETA HQ here so I was on their referral list as a resource. I had to stop doing it after my wife died because it was just my 2y/o and me. No time to drop everything and go grab a cat. It was fairly lucrative. I didn't charge but would accept "Donations" to offset my fuel costs. Sometimes nothing, sometimes a whole lot. I should probably get back into it! Would give me an excuse to climb.
 
Steve Connally said:
@colb Your video won't show. What are you presenting on? So i've done literally hundreds of cat rescues. Only had 2 jumpers and never been pissed on. I'd bring 1 thick leather glove and grab them by the scruff and jam them in the bag. Side note, don't open bag until in the house! I was on Dan's site and we have the PETA HQ here so I was on their referral list as a resource. I had to stop doing it after my wife died because it was just my 2y/o and me. No time to drop everything and go grab a cat. It was fairly lucrative. I didn't charge but would accept "Donations" to offset my fuel costs. Sometimes nothing, sometimes a whole lot. I should probably get back into it! Would give me an excuse to climb.
Click to expand...
It's Normer presenting on cat rescue. Not me. This link should be better:


I did not know about your background with cats, @Steve Connally but it makes complete sense.
 
colb said:
It's Normer presenting on cat rescue. Not me. This link should be better:


I did not know about your background with cats, @Steve Connally but it makes complete sense.
Click to expand...
Being PETA is here I got several calls a week for a while. It was pretty lucrative for a while but that wasn’t my motivation. I love cats. They’re assholes and persnickety so we get along very well as I represent both of those qualities. I finally had to call them and tell them why I couldn’t do it anymore. I also had Dan remove me from the site. People just didn’t understand why I couldn’t just lock my 2 yo in the truck and go save their kitty. Plus I just wasn’t in the best emotional and psychological place. I was in survival mode and the cats didn’t fit into that plan. Maybe someday I’ll do it again. To be honest the eagle gig satisfies that kind of climbing for me but I see the need and the hole in the market. Most companies charge a bunch down here. I feel like that’s kinda shitty but it’s their karma!!
 
Buddy of my is a tree climber here outside of Niagara Falls, ny he has a cat rescue. Has done a few hundred before. Just takes donations and doesn’t charge for it. Been tore up a handful of times. There are some folks who approached him recently about starting a non profit with donations and fundraisers to get a business going for him.
 
ATH said:
Climbing Innovations has a cat rescue bag. I've only done one cat rescue, and the next week the bag was on sale, so I bought it...haven't used it since.

The one I did, I used a pillow case and nearly dropped it when trying to stuff it in!

My policy is: "half price, if I can just use the big shot".
Click to expand...
I've done several dozen over the last few years. Started using a pillow case long ago but almost lost one when it started to tear so went to a rope bag then got the climbing innovation bag and that works awesome. The longest one was up for 13 days in hot summer but was fine. I've been on the news several times and now people call the news station and they call on me. I don't charge but if they insist on paying i tell them to donate to a no kill animal shelter. The awesome feeling of helping others when no one else can is good enough pay. Especially if it is a kids cat.
 
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