Safe! Thanks to neighbor Olga for the picture from Wednesday morning’s rescue

The story ends with Ella living happily ever after with her Capitol Hill family she is still getting used to. It begins with concerned neighbors hearing a kitty in distress in the dark of night, stuck up in a 65-foot tree high above Volunteer Park.

Shaun Sears of Canopy Cat Rescue says it was all in a morning’s work.

“This is what we do. Rescue cats that get stuck up in trees.”

This Capitol Hill cat’s cries for help were heard by a passerby late Tuesday night below a huge cedar near the park’s north pond. They marked the location on their phone and posted to the CHS Facebook Group looking for advice on how to help.

Sears says that is usually how Canopy Cat Rescue gets called in. People call the “usual suspects, the fire department, animal control,” and they say, “Call Cat Rescue.”

This time, Sears said the email came in around 1:30 AM. Once the sun came up, Sears asked for the sender to go check if the cat was still stuck up the tree. With confirmation, Canopy Cat Rescue went into motion.

Sears said working with an unknown cat can be relatively tricky when you are 65 feet up in a tree but this kitty was “a really big sweetheart.” Then the bag came out. It’s the only safe way to get a scared cat back to the ground, Sears said, and this Capitol Hill cat didn’t want to go quietly.

Back on the ground after the Wednesday morning rescue, Sears said a scan of the cat’s chip information helped reunite Ella with her family that lives nearby. She had been missing for five days after being recently adopted, getting outside, and heading out on adventure in the park.

Sears says Canopy Cat Rescue grew out of his work with trees and the occasional kitty rescue calls like this one. The company used to charge a rescue fee until a successful retrieval in SeaTac where Sears said he could tell the family was happy to have its beloved cat back but that the $75 charge was a serious financial outlay. He says he tore that check up and, after also considering the cats that needed rescuing that didn’t have a family to pay for them, decided to shape Canopy Cat Rescue as a nonprofit supported by donations.

“All cats deserve to be rescued,” Sears said.

You can learn more about how to contact and supporting Canopy Cat Rescue at canopycatrescue.com.

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