catrescue

Jennifer and I rescue her cat "Penny" from a tree

photos by Jeff Opal, taken
Aug. 29, 2002

   Jennifer knocked on my door around 9 in the morning, asking for help with her beloved cat Penny.
    Jennifer knew that I have lots of pieces of wood in my apartment. She guessed that we might be able to extend a long board over to Penny, and coax Penny into walking accross the board to us and to safety. Jennifer guessed correctly.
    I selected an eight foot long two-by-four. After we walked together to where we could see Penny (as shown here), I sensed that this was a great opportunity to take some photographs.
    The topmost of these four photos (arranged from top to bottom in the same order that I took them) shows Penny stuck in the tree. Where Penny is in this photo is a spot around 15 feet high. When I took the photo I was standing on the second floor balcony of my apartment complex.

   In this photo, Jennifer is holding an eight foot long two-by-four piece of pine. The end of it is resting on a branch that Penny is perched on.
    Penny first walked down the branching and about a foot past the board, as if to do a quick test to see if the branch could hold the weight of both the board and herself.
   She then walked right back to where she is shown in this photo. Around a minute later, in response to our constant encouraging noises, she approached the board again. This time she dared to walk out on it.

   This photo shows Penny on the board, walking towards us. I love this photo, and I was very pleased that I was able to capture this very interesting image. Jennifer loves the photo too, although it upset her a lot when I took it (as described below).
    I'm unsure about why this photo is so much brighter than the other three. I suppose that the camera was pointed such that the morning sun (to the left) was nearly visible.
    Jennifer became very frightened when I stopped holding the board with my right hand and used that hand for something else (to pull my Visor out and take this photo). She got angry and ordered me: "DON'T TAKE A PHOTO". Jennifer believed that her precious kitty might fall and die. I don't think a fall of a mere 15 feet, onto grassy soft earth, would hurt a cat, expecially a small young adult cat like Penny. Perhaps I'm wrong.
    I took the photo anyway, thinking that it was worth what I believe was a small risk to the cat.
    Fortunately I had a button of my Visor set to take a color photo. Had I not had the Visor pre-programmed in such a way,for a situation like this, I would have been forced to use both hands instead of only one.

This photo shows Jennifer holding Penny, about ten seconds after Penny crossed the two-by-four bridge to safety.