Two brothers and their mother tried to get rescue workers to help a cat out of a tree for days. Finally, a pruning specialist agreed to assist the feline.
Tyler and Kaeleb Arnold from Coventry, Rhode Island, found a cat seemingly in trouble, the feline was stuck in a tree 20 feet off the ground, WJAR reported. Tyler explained to the news outlet:
“We didn’t know how he got there. He was just up there. He had no food, no water,”
The spooked puss climbed even higher whenever they tried to approach him, reaching approximately 50 feet off the ground. At that height, he started swinging dangerously.
A tricky situation
The feline was entirely out of reach for the teenagers, even their father’s ladder was far too short to bring him to safety.
Initially, the brothers alerted their mother, Bonnie Arnold. Bonnie then called the appropriate services for help, but since it was Sunday, no one was available.
The mother kept trying the following week, saying:
“Monday and Tuesday, I called everyone I knew. By Wednesday, I thought there was nothing more I could do,”
The odds were not in the kitten’s favor, every attempt to help him faced a significant hurdle.
First, Animal Control services did not have a certified climber. Likewise, the fire department was worried about their truck getting stuck in the muddy terrain.
The animal stayed a total of five days atop that tree. Meanwhile, the Arnolds couldn’t bear watching this cat in pain, so they didn’t give up.
Finally, Bonnie Arnold’s brother called a friend named Bob Fratantuono, who had started his tree-trimming business three years before.
Safe at last
Fratantuono and two coworkers, Jeremy Pomfret and Don Presley, arrived on the scene with a bucket truck the next day.
One of the men rose to the kitty’s level, while the others drove the engine. He grabbed the kitten and descended.
The feline was visibly pleased to be back on the ground. Afterward, the Arnolds drove him to the local animal control agency.
The family had assumed the kitten was a stray, but that wasn’t the case. In reality, the cat belonged to a family who had been desperately searching for them for the past six days.
His owner, Destiny Charrette, had received the kitten as a gift from her father, so she was adamant about finding him. A distressed Destiny had tried contacting shelters and posting comments on a local Facebook page but to no avail.
She lived only a mile away from where her cat was rescued, on Victory Highway, she shared the circumstances of her pet’s disappearance :
“His name is Poky Blue. He gets out of the house a lot. He doesn’t want to be an indoor cat, but he never goes away. He always comes back at night, but that day he didn’t.”
Destiny Charrette immediately went to the Animal Services shelter after hearing what had happened. Finding her cat in good condition made the woman euphoric, she praised everyone involved in the rescue operation.
Following the stressful episode, Destiny has attached a tracking tag and harness to her Poky Blue. From now on, she intends to keep tabs on him.