I had an adventure going on the last couple of days.
Mikasa is a 1-year-old tabby. An elderly lady showed up at my door one morning and asked if I knew of anyone that would take Meek and her brother and sister. Before I could answer, the lady asked "Could you take them?"
I really wasn't looking to add more cats to the household at the time, but I knew she was desperate and how can anyone with a soul turn them away, so I took them in.
On Friday morning, Mikasa didn't come home to eat. Usually she comes in a little after dark. I went over my property filling the feed stations for the strays and other animals and called for her. I heard a meow back to me in the woods.
There, 40 feet up in the crook in a walnut tree I'd just discovered on the corner of my property and my neighbor's, was Meek. It was the last branch on a tree that was at least 70 feet high.
I couldn't coax her down. On Saturday morning, we had two fire companies in trying to get her, but only one had a ladder nearly high enough. The EMT managed to get close enough to grab her by the tail but she scratched his neck and he loosened his grip and she ran up another 10 feet. The fire companies didn't have any other answers and left, except for these two young ones from the local fire company that doesn't even send a ladder truck because they can't handle something like this.
Them and a couple of friends and my neighbor cut the walnut tree so that it fell into two pine trees about 20 feet away, forming a triangle with the ground. I was so happy to find that walnut tree a couple of months ago because I always wanted one on my property and didn't realize there was one right there, but there wasn't an option, and there really wasn't a choice.
Meek still wouldn't come down.
In fact, she went even higher, going between the pines and the fallen walnut.
The two young EMTs called me and asked if we could go visit Meek in the tree at 11:30 last night to see if we could come up with a plan, so I met them and the one girl tried to climb the tree until I told her not to.
They said they'd come up with something and be back in the morning.
I got up this morning not expecting to find Mikasa alive. She had been meowing loudly the first day and a half, but the previous night it was pretty weak. But I called for her and she answered.
I figured I'd tell the EMTs she was still alive so we could cut down the pine trees. I talked to Meek and tapped the palms of my hands on the trunk of the fallen walnut tree.
Meek looked down at me and then she came to the first crook in the walnut, then the next one down, then the bottom one, and finally shuffled down and jumped the last 5 feet.
She didn't let me pick her up at first, looking for another adventure, but I grabbed her and held her tight and took her home. She ate voraciously but now is running all over the house and wants back out.
This wasn't the first thing with her this year. In the last week of July, she had an accident with a swinging door and had seizures. I took her to the animal hospital and they said the brain damage was too severe and they'd probably have to put her to sleep. I asked if I could stay with her a few hours that night. At first, I had no hope, she was like an invalid, but then she ate for me and recovered and came home three days later, although she has a neurologic issue and her head is still crooked to this day.
Six weeks after that, she disappeared. I spent two weeks walking and running all over the township looking for her. That's when I found the walnut tree, actually. Then one morning she was waiting at the door.
Crazy cat.
