Yesterday, as I was walking home from an appointment, I heard a strange howling from above. I thought it might be a squirrel but lo and behold it was a kitten. He was terrified to move and I was afraid he was going to succumb to heat stroke if he didn't get down. I went home to look up some phone numbers for rescuing distressed animals but could find nothing. So I went back armed with a carrier and a long-armed reacher - the kind used after hip surgery. I thought I might be able to jostle him with it but it turned out he was at least 10 feet beyond the reacher. When I returned to him he was hanging limp from the branch and I thought he had died. So I started screaming and banging on the trunk of the tree and managed to rouse him. After an hour of yelling and coaxing, he finally came alive and started down the trunk backwards all the while wailing. I was able to catch him, put him in the carrier and head for home. He's now in the bathroom, isolated from my resident cat pending his FIV, FLE status. But he's so slippery that he's escaped a few times.
I shall watch for posters of lost kittens and if none materializes in the next week, I shall keep him. I really didn't want a kitten but this looks like some kind of destiny at work. I've given him tons of Tayoh's forgotten toys and he plays like a madman. I suppose all kittens are a bit mad. I'd forgotten that, it's been so long.
