[Vision2020] Caturday (September 1, 2012)

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the New Haven Register (New Haven, Connecticut) at:

(with videos)
http://nhregister.com/articles/2012/08/30/news/metro/doc503ff36281df9984761328.txt?viewmode=fullstory

-----------------------------------

Cat rescued in Woodbridge after being stuck in tree since Saturday

WOODBRIDGE — At first the rescue Thursday afternoon seemed nearly impossible as Gravel, a two-year-old long-haired grey feline, was perched about 30 feet up in a wedge of the tree in the forest behind a Seymour Road home.

Complicating matters was the fact Gravel had been stuck in the tree since Saturday. Then as an arborist began to prepare his assent Thursday the feline scurried 20 feet further into the tree. Now he was perched precariously on a dead tree limb.

But with the skillful work of Vorio Tree Expert owner Brendon Vorio, of Seymour, he was able to eventually snare Gravel and ever so slowly guided the stranded feline to him.

A snare pole is used to assist capturing rabid and out of control animals or ones that are hard to reach.

Their descent from the tree was met with enthusiasm from the small crowd gathered holding their collective breath as Vorio descended the tree all the while protecting Gravel, who was immediately placed into a cat carrier.

Gravel had been missing since Saturday when he didn’t come home for his breakfast, owner Aarika Burk said.

Burk said she combed the area checking his usual spots. She even went door-to-door to her neighbors asking if anyone had seen the cat.

One neighbor called to say they had heard a feline meowing on the Blue Trail behind their home.

The trail is part of the state’s Blue Blazed Hiking Trail system.

When Burk found him he was perched in the tree looking down at her talking a mile a minute.

She said she and her mother went and got their 24-foot ladder but it wasn’t tall enough to reach him. They carried the ladder about a quarter of a mile over a stream to try and rescue the stranded animal.

She and her mother and father kept returning, bringing food trying to coax the animal out of the tree, Burk said.

On Wednesday, they contacted Woodbridge Animal Control, where they had adopted the feline, for help.

Animal Control Officers Karen Lombardi and Paul Niedmann proceeded to cut down a smaller tree and lean it into the larger tree Gravel was perched in to give him an easier dissent. But Thursday morning, he was still up there getting more and more upset.

That’s when Lombardi began to locate a tree expert to scale up the tree and rescue Gravel.

Lombardi said they needed someone who could physically climb the tree since they were so far into the woods.

She located Vorio through a national referral service for tree-stranded cat owners.

And as luck would have it Vorio was between service calls and came right over and spent an hour freeing the feline.

Vorio, who has a Chihuahua, about the size of a cat, said in the past two years he has assisted in 10 such rescues and has been successful with six of them.

This rescue was a tough one.

“He was on a dead limb which made rescuing him more challenging,” he said.

Burk said Gravel will certainly be an inside feline from now on.

At dinner time Thursday Gravel was reported to be doing very well enjoying a full meal.

Burk said she was grateful for the assistance.

“Brendon was awesome. He went above and beyond to rescue Gravel. Animal Control was very supportive and offered a lot of help and reassurance,” she said.

Call Bridget Albert at 203-789-5702  and follow her on Twitter @nhrbalbert. To receive breaking news first, text the word NHNEWS to 22700. *Msg & Data Rates May Apply. Text HELP for help. Text STOP to cancel.

---------------

Brendon Vorio, owner of Vorio Tree Experts, rescues "Gravel," a house cat that was stuck up in a tree for four days along the woods behind his owners' home on Seymour Road. Vorio had to climb up nearly 40 feet to rescue the scared animal. The cat climbed further up a thin dead branch making the rescue more difficult.


 
-----------------------------------

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students.  The college students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20120901/8feb7661/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 88313 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20120901/8feb7661/attachment-0001.jpeg>