EVERY INCH THE HERO
Yes, cats get stuck in trees. This professional climber in the U.S. rescues them at no charge
David Fernandez-moreno was frantic to find his cat Shadow when the feline somehow slipped out of his Philadelphia home and went missing.
“We looked everywhere and called for him for a few days, but there was no trace of him,” said Fernandez-moreno, 21. “I was scared I wouldn't see him again.”
Then three days later, in mid-january, Fernandez-moreno was out for a run in his neighbourhood when he saw the stray feline he'd taken in a few months earlier. Shadow was meowing and hunkered down on a rotting tree limb near the top of a 30-foot (nine-metre) tree, about a block from his house. The cat was afraid to come down.
Fernandez-moreno said he shouted for Shadow to hang on while he got help.
It's a common situation with cats. According to pet health experts at PETMD, cats tend to go high when they're either chasing a small animal or feeling threatened, but many have trouble co-ordinating their front and hind feet when trying to climb down. They generally jump down from high perches, but a tree might be too far off the ground for them to land safely.
In 2021, a cat named Hank was stuck in a tree in Northeast Washington for five days, and it took more than 30 people to get him down.
Fernandez-moreno said he ran home and told his mother he'd spotted Shadow.
“It was really cold outside,” he said. “It had been snowing and I knew he was getting weak and was freezing up there.”
Fernandez-moreno said he called police, and an officer gave him contact information for several people who might be able to help. One person gave him a number for Steven Murrow, a professional tree climber from Pitman, N.J., who lives about 30 minutes from Philadelphia and rescues cats at no charge.
Murrow, 39, runs Tesla Tree Service, a tree-cutting business named after the vehicle he uses to haul around his solar-charged chainsaws and climbing equipment. He immediately dropped what he was doing that day, Jan. 16, and drove to Philadelphia to pluck Shadow out of the tree.
Murrow made a video of the recovery and posted it on Facebook with some of the other 100-plus cat rescues he's done over the past three years. Thirty-nine of those rescues were done in 2023.
“Ah, hey, buddy — yeah, what are you doing up there? It's snowing — I'll get ya,” he tells the cat in the video as Shadow pokes his head from a hole in the rotted-out tree limb.
In a second video, he sweet-talks the cat to come out of the hole and walk toward him.
“What are you doing? Come on out, bud — come on out of that tree, you're not a squirrel, you can't live in there. Come on buddy, come to me,” he told the cat.
Murrow said Shadow crept close enough for him to gently grab him off the snowy branch and place him inside a soft drawstring pouch attached to his harness.
Fernandez-moreno was overjoyed.
“When he brought him down, I couldn't believe this nice guy came out here and rescued him for free,” Fernandez-moreno said. “He's a real standup guy to do something like that.”
Fernandez-moreno said he gave Shadow food and water, then took him to the vet for a checkup.
“He was a little skinny, but otherwise was fine,” he said. “Once he was warmed up, we gave him a nice bath.”
For Murrow, it was another outing in a long string of successful cat rescues.
He said he first coaxed a nervous feline from a tall tree in 2021, after friends told him about a cat somebody had posted about on Facebook. It had been stuck in a tree in South Jersey for almost a week.
“They asked if I could help, and I said, `Sure, I'll give it a try,' ” Murrow said. “I'm a climber and I love animals, but I'd never rescued a cat before.”
Murrow successfully got the cat out of the tree after pulling himself
up on a rope and enticing the scared feline to come to him in the treetops. He then placed the cat in the pouch and carefully lowered them both down.
The property owners put a notice on social media about the cat and were eventually able to reunite him with his owners, he said.
“I literally cried when I held that cat and comforted him to let him know it was OK,” Murrow recalled. “He was so hungry and thirsty that he was starting to get organ failure.”
Murrow decided to advertise he'd rescue cats from trees at no charge after that, he said. A Philadelphia news station recently covered his efforts in the area.
People who don't live near Murrow can find a list of potential helpers through the Cat in a Tree Rescue directory. Some rescuers — such as those at Canopy Cat Rescue in Seattle — will rescue cats at no charge but encourage donations, while others charge for the service.
Most people call their local fire departments first when they discover cats in trouble, but ladder trucks can't always access the trees, Murrow said.
“As a tree climber, I can go places the ladder truck can't,” he said, noting that he tosses a weighted throw line high into the tree canopy before safely climbing up.
Jane Niziol and Joanna Johnson of Turnersville, N.J., said they were stunned at how quickly Murrow retrieved a cat named Jon Jon from an 80-ft (24-m) tree in their
neighbourhood last year after it was stuck at the top for three days.
“We'd tried everything to coax the cat down, including making a little ramp for it,” said Johnson, 63. “Nothing worked.”
When another neighbour learned about Murrow's free service online, “we called and he came out right away,” said Niziol, 59. “In 30 minutes, he'd climbed up the tree, fetched the cat, climbed back down and saved the day.”
Jon Jon was taken to an animal shelter and was eventually reunited with his owners, Niziol said.
In January, Mary Giffear called Murrow after she and her husband noticed a black-and-white cat at the top of a neighbour's pine tree in Philadelphia when they returned from a trip out of town.
“I'd estimate it had been up there for six days,” said Giffear, 44. Murrow drove on slick roads after a snowstorm to rescue the cat named Star, she said.
“He was so kind about it, and he told us to put the cat inside where it wouldn't have a lot of space to run away,” Giffear said. “We put it
in our bathroom at first, then we kept it for a week upstairs, away from our dog, until we'd found the owner.”
She eventually learned the owners were an elderly couple who lived down the street, she said.
“They were so thankful to get their cat back,” she said. “They'd gone looking for him, but they don't have a social media presence. They figured Star was gone.”
Murrow said he's always thrilled to hear about happy reunions.
“In 25 per cent of cases, we don't know right away who the owners are,” he said. “A cat could end up in a tree almost anywhere.”
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals recently gave Murrow a Compassionate Action Award for taking his empathy to new heights, but he said his greatest reward is tucking a frightened feline into his harness pouch, knowing it won't have to spend another night in the treetops.
“I'm a big believer in karma and kindness,” he said. “If I can save a cat's life by climbing a tree, I'm happy to do it.”
We called and he came out right away. In 30 minutes, he'd climbed up the tree, fetched the cat, climbed back down and saved the day.