Up A Tree

Little Sirius had  not been seen in almost twenty four hours and we were worried sick.

Granted, our tenderhearted tuxedo cat has spent many a summer night outdoors. In his youth, no doubt he led a wild and mysterious life after dark, roaming his territory that consists of our yard, and the two neighbors' yards across the street. But Sirius is getting a bit on in years now  and his habits have changed somewhat. Though he still likes to prowl around during the wee hours in warm weather, he now spends his nights sleeping under the daylilies in our backyard, and certainly we always find him waiting at the back door by dawn. Sirius does not miss many meals.

So when we returned home this afternoon to find him still missing, my daughters decided to mount a search. Wandering around his territorial properties, my fourth let forth a series of fairly cat-like calls, meowing to him as we often do when we call him home.

Within a few minutes, she heard a sweet sound.

Sirius meowed back to her. 

With waves of relief and wild surges of adrenaline, two more daughters joined the hunt. As human and cat called back and forth to each other, Daughters Two, Three, and Four followed the sound of our cat's plaintive yeowls to find him, quite literally, up a tree. 

Look in the center of this photo. See the sunshine on the trunk of the tree? Now track to the left of the trunk, and that little black blob with pointy ears is our Sirius. 

He was high up in a neighbor's tree, standing on a branch and hugging the trunk, about twenty feet above ground.

In an instant, my fourth-born put together a rescue mission. My husband joined the hunt, as did the man in whose backyard this adventure was unfolding, and his son and daughter, ages seven and four. 

An extension ladder was produced. 

My fourth-born scurried up, and then crossed over to climbing up the tree another five feet or so.

Treats were offered. 

Poor Sirius clearly wanted down, but was uncertain how to lower himself down the long sections of trunk between the limbs. 

Ideas were brainstormed

Google was searched.

And after several misfires, the team came up with the idea of rigging a rope over a branch above Sirius to raise our cat kennel up and rest it on the branch where Sirius was trapped. Once that was accomplished, my tree-born daughter offered some sweet-talking and more treats in the kennel, and eventually coaxed Sirius inside. Once the door was safely latched, the rope operators on the ground lowered him to terra firma, and the whole group triumphantly brought him home. 

A closer shot of a scared kitty up a big tree. 

Over the next few hours, I'm happy to report that Sirius ate several meals, allowed his family and neighbor children to fuss enormously over him, purred ecstatically, and slept hard. 

We are very happy that he's home again.

And we are also relieved that,at least for now, he has shown absolutely no interest in going back outside. 

When he is ready, surely he will venture out. Our cats love spending time outdoors and we feel responsible for allowing them to live their best lives.

But even when he feel ready to head out to our sunny back garden, I suspect it will be quite some time before our Sirius climbs up another tree.