If a cat really has nine lives, this one used most of them up.
From Thursday, December 30, until Tuesday, January 4, a black house cat was stuck in a tree outside 2885 Lamport Place. Without food or shelter, the cat managed to stay alive. She was curled in a nook at the top of the tree for nearly a week before Throggs Neck good Samaritans were able to get her down.
The rescue itself wasn’t ideal, but Alma Mazza, who spearheaded the efforts, was at least able to get the cat warm and fed by the end of the day Tuesday.
“She’s good,” Mazza said after the rescue. “She’s down and she’s safe.”
Employees with a local tree removal company, who declined to give their names, had to climb up the roughly three-story tall tree to where the cat was sitting. Armed with a bag and a pulley system, the climber attempted to put the cat into the bag and then ease it down to the ground.
But the cat was skittish, and it did not want to get into the bag,
It jumped from the top of the tree into a cluster of thin branches, before landing in a snow pile on the ground.
“It fell, but it’s safe now,” Mazza said, holding a can of cat food and calling out for the feline after it ran from the snow pile.
Mazza’s husband Ronnie was the first to notice the cat. He was doing the dishes and saw the black head poking out of the top of a tree that had broken during the wind storms over the summer.
“I looked up and said, ‘Is that a cat’?” Ronnie said. “He looked pretty comfortable there and then about two days later I looked and I saw him again. I was like ‘wow, that cat is still up there.’”
After a few days, Mazza began calling local shelters, rescue centers and pet stores for help, but she got little response.
The fire department even tried to rescue the cat on Monday, but was able to access the property with its truck and no ladder was able to reach the tree, which sits at the back end of the property.
While getting the cat down was tough, Mazza had an easy time rounding up pet food, a blanket and a cage from friends and the nearby pet store WaWa’s Puppy Boutique. She also set up an appointment with the veterinarian.
“He’s definitely dehydrated and starving,” she said. “But it’s been beautiful to get the help we did. Everyone in the neighborhood was concerned.”
