Is cat stuck in tree, or just hanging out?

Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Greencastle Middle School students, assisted by science teacher Stacie Stoffregen, launch hot air balloons from the football field Tuesday morning. For the past 11 years, students in Stoffregen's class and teacher Matt Huber's social studies class have made the balloons as part of a unit of study about World War II. In previous years, the balloons have traveled up to 5 miles before losing air and drifting to the ground.

Through the years, Putnam County resident Judy Givan has helped rescue animals from some pretty precarious places.

But when a yellow striped cat in her neighborhood south of Greencastle climbed into a tree and stayed there, she wasn't sure what to do.

According to Givan, who lives on Manhattan Road about three miles south of Greencastle, the animal climbed into the tree more than a week ago and just keeps getting higher.

Presumably the cat has gone without food or water the entire time and Givan worries it's going to die. Food was placed near the base of the tree, but the cat hasn't come down to eat it.

On Tuesday the cat had draped itself in the crook of two limbs close to 40 feet off the ground. The cat's back legs and tail were hanging motionless in the air.

Givan strained to see the cat through a set of binoculars and called out to it. The cat responded only with a distressed "meow" and appeared unable to move.

"He's dying," Givan said. In the last few days, Givan has called the fire department and humane society hoping someone would be able to help the cat.

Firefighters from Reelsville sprayed water in the tree on Saturday, trying to get the cat to come down, but their efforts failed.

Givan said she contacted the Humane Society of Putnam County but they don't have the capability for climbing a tree.

She contacted the BannerGraphic Tuesday afternoon, hoping someone would read about the plight of the cat and offer to help. She wondered if someone with a cherry picker would be able to ascend the tree and reach the endangered animal.

"If someone doesn't climb up there and get it, it's going to die," she said.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: