Lucy, Lucy, Lucy! Her
human mom, Hannah, moved to a new apartment and amid the moving commotion Lucy
got out and ran up a tree. Hannah was worried
that if Lucy came down on her own she wouldn’t know where to go and could be
lost forever. A tree care company came
to help on day 1 but since Lucy is skittish around strangers she went further
up the tree and the good Samaritans were unable to get her down.
The next day I came out and found Lucy about 50 feet up a
leaning oak tree that would not be strong enough to hold my entire weight. I climbed a tall, sturdy adjacent tree and
scampered over to Lucy’s tree still tied safely in to the strong tree. The wind was whipping the leaning tree back
and forth, which Lucy didn’t enjoy one bit, and then about an hour into the
difficult rescue a drenching November rain blew in. Each time I climbed closer to Lucy on the
leaning tree, she would go a bit higher just out of my net’s reach. Food wasn’t enough to lure her to me, neither
was gentle shaking of the tree, or poking her with a stick.
After about 2.5 hours the tree was wet and slippery, Lucy
and I were drenched, and I couldn’t safely go any higher in the leaning
tree. We had a difficult decision to
make: abandon the rescue and hope Lucy would find her own way down at a time
when Hannah could lure her into her new apartment, or carefully cut the branch
Lucy was on. Despite the possibility
that Lucy would lose her grip and fall 60-70 feet to the (clear and soft)
forest floor below we decided to make the attempt. My hope was that the limb would pendulum
slowly enough that Lucy could stay on at which point she would be beneath me
and I could have a better chance of getting her into the rescue bag.
I secured the limb so that it couldn’t fall to the ground after
it was cut and in so doing land on anyone below. As I slowly cut through the branch it bent
then swung predictably toward the trunk.
The branch was too heavy for me to handle and Lucy was not able to hold
on. She fell to the ground, waited a
moment, then ran toward another tree and began to climb it! Oh no!
Thankfully her strength was gone and she fell off that trunk after only
climbing 10-15 feet up. Hannah gathered
Lucy into her arms and she finally relaxed.
Once she got her inside, Hannah could tell Lucy’s right
front leg was hurt. The vet took X-rays
and reported that Lucy had a dislocated elbow and had lost a tooth as a result
of the fall. Lucy’s prognosis is good and
she is in for plenty of TLC (and a couple more vet visits) over the next couple
of weeks.
