• ameancow@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    When I was about 11 I had a cat I loved dearly get stuck in a massive cottonwood tree over my house for 5 days, it was agonizing listening to him cry every day.

    My parents were cold and heartless about it and joked that there would be a “cat skeleton tree” in our yard.

    I tried everything, finally got an older sibling to help throw a fishing line up and pull up a bucket with wet food. It didn’t make it quite to his limb, but eventually the smell drove him to climb towards it, and from there I was able to coax him down. He was covered in ants and dehydrated but he was fine.

    A couple weeks later he ran up a pine tree and got stuck for 4 days again. This time I fashioned a pole and just knocked him off the branch. He fell about 20 feet into a pile of leaves and pine needles and was fine.

      • ameancow@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        Yah he learned from the second time, never climbed another tree even as we lived in the woods.

      • ameancow@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        He was my only friend for many years, living in isolated areas and being kept out of school I didn’t have much else besides shitty parents and siblings that just wanted to get high, the whole idea of people being heartless towards innocent beings in need of aid makes my blood run cold and the back of my neck feel hot with anger.