First of all, I have to tell you that I started working on a part time job (with the prospect of it becoming a full time job next year), and it's a little company in the basement of a private building in a pretty rural area, with a huge garden around and woods and fields nearby.
Today at noon, my co-worker Silke, who loves animals as much as I do (she has ferrets and a little doggie) went outside to have a cigarette, but came back after a minute to tell me that she heard a cat crying, loudly and pityfully. I followed her, and just that second she saw the cat, high in a tree, at the edge of the forest. It was a black and white one, so you could see her very well.
Well, we crossed our boss' garden and approached the tree, sweet talking to the kitty. Somebody had already leant a long wooden beam against the tree (later we learnt that it has been our boss), to make it easier for the cat come down, but obviously it wasn't working. She came down a few branches when we talked to her, but she was too scary to enter the beam and walk down, it would have been still 5 or more metres to go, and she feared that.
Remembering an article I recently read, one about a cat dying in a tree after 5 days when the fire brigade refused to rescue it and with nobody else feeling responsible, I already feared the worst. Our boss wasn't at home, so a decision had to be made. Called the local animal shelter and animal organization first, but they had no clue what to do and recommanded to call the fire department. There I was told that they're not responsible for these things any more, unless you pay for it, but it would be at least a few hundreds Euro, maybe more. Okay, neither my co-worker nor I have so much money, and I got pretty frustrated and angry that there's no way to help that poor cat. Was told by the fire worker that most of them come down after a while, but like that article showed, not all of them do...
Went back to look for the cat, but in the meantime, Silke has contacted a neighbor, and they brought along a huge ladder. This ladder was long enough to reach the cat, and even though she was climbing higher when the man approached, she came down after a while and allowed the man to grab her, and she didn't even panic when he carried her down. We learnt from that neighbor that the poor baby has been in that tree since yesterday already, and that he and our boss had already planned a recue for the evening.
Well, this wasn't necessary anymore, kitty was safe back down on the floor. Turned out she was an affectionate, sweet and trustfull little girl, as she didn't walk away and rubbed our legs. She's been so sweet that even when she was still on the tree, she was rubbing her cheeks against the branches when we started talking to her.
So when we figured she would walk home after her rescue, we were wrong. She followed us to the office, and cried loudly outside the window, until we let her in, and Silke gave her the chicken salad she had brought for lunch (I know, not the right food for a cat, but we didn't have anything else, and we figured the kitty was hungry and thirsty after a day and a night on that tree). She ate well and drank and calmed down a bit, but still entertained us. She needed a lot of attention, so, needless to say, we didn't work much this afternoon! And I wish I'd had my camera with me, because she looked like a little sweet kitty model when she slept on the chair, played with endless metres of film (we're in the speed control business) or laid down on the mousepad!
However, since we rescued the cat and she obviosly had no place to go, we started feeling responsible for her. Silke called her boyfriend to tell him she may take the kitty with her as a foster, and he was just working for an old lady living on the other side of the big field oustide, and she suggested to adopt it. Silke planned to still do some research if this kitty has a home or not, but later our boss told us on the phone that she's a stray (but from her behavior, it's very obvious to see that she must have been with humans before, she didn't act like a feral at all!).
Eventually, Silke's bf showed up and they took the kitty with them, and now I hope she'll have some happy news to tell tomorrow.
Kirsten
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