Cat Skeletons

There is a lady who lives just down the road from us. We call her the "Goat Woman" because she raises goats, lots of them. Apparently, goat meat is becoming very popular. She also has ducks, rabbits, dogs and cats.

Her animals have all been known to frequent our property but most recently it was her orange cat, Mister. Several weeks ago dd was out walking on our land and came home to tell us there was a large cat stuck in a tree. At the time, we did not know who this cat belonged to. We weren't concerned, after all, it would come down when it got hungry, right? Well, dd the animal lover gave daily reports on the cat's well-being and begged for us to rescue him. Dh kept repeating, "the cat will come down on it's own". After 10 days, the cat's appetite still wasn't enough motivation to come off of his perch. We decided to try to help the poor thing. Dd and I dragged a 20-foot ladder out of our garage, down the hill and into the hollow where Mister was staying. He was in the tallest tree in the woods! Upon our approach he was crying out as if he desperately wanted help so we were confident that this would work.

I put the ladder against the tree and looked at dd. She said, "you want me to climb up there?" I surreptitiously explained to her all of the reasons why she should be the one to do the climbing. Plus, I told her, if she fell I could catch her. She still wasn't convinced but her love for all living creatures won out and after a short debate she started up the ladder. When she was halfway up, I handed her a plank to extend to Mister so that he could walk down it. It seemed like a good plan but Mister would have none of it. He would approach the plank and appeared to want to climb down but just couldn't muster up the courage. We went home dejected.

Several days later (day 17 for Mister), dh decided to attempt a rescue while I was at work. He put a piece of meat on a long pole and held it up to Mister. The cat was obviously very hungry by this time and was carefully approaching the meat. When he got close enough, dh swung the pole and tried to knock the cat out of the tree. This is no stupid cat, I'll have you know. He climbed to the uppermost branches of the tree and sat there.

I joined dd in worrying about the cat. I asked friends what they would do. One person said, "I've never seen a cat skeleton hanging in a tree, it'll come down". So, we waited.

On day 21, dd reported that the cat was no longer in the tree. We rejoiced that he had finally managed to come down. Then dh, who has a way with words, said "it probably became too weak and either fell out and died or a big hawk or owl carried it off". The kids and I grieved for the cat.

A few days later our phone wasn't working so I went to Goat Woman's house to ask to use her phone to notify the phone company. She agreed and I did and as I was leaving she said "You haven't seen a cat in a tree lately, have you?" I replied that yes, as a matter of fact there was a cat in one of our trees for about 3 weeks but that he was now gone. She said, very nonchalantly, that it was her cat, Mister, who frequently got himself stuck in trees. I told her I was so sorry for her loss, had I known I would have notified her. She said "Oh no, he's fine! He was very skinny and weak when he hobbled home but he's perking up. Just let me know if you ever see him again-I can get him down."

Yesterday I happened to look out my window and saw Goat Woman standing on her tractor reaching up to a tree limb with a box mounted on a pole....................................................