🚀 go-pugleaf

 > Has anyone out there ever taken a cat out of a tree? It came up in a
 > local newsgroup I read. We don't, and I don't know if we have ever had
 > the opportunity.
 >
 > Dave Scruggs Captain, Boulder Creek Fire Boulder Creek, Calif.
 >

In one city I worked for as a seasonal relief dispatcher they had a 
rigid policy against the FD doing any kind of animal rescue work.  There 
was a dispute ongoing between the city and the county government about 
who was responsible for such effort within the city limits.  The first 
call came in at 2000 hours complaining about a cat stuck up a tree.  The 
instructions from the city managers office was to refer all such calls 
to the county.  The elderly female caller did not want a referral 
because she new that the county would not send an animal control officer 
until morning.  She demanded that we "get down here right now."  The cat 
was stuck outside her bedroom window and was keeping her awake with it's 
yowling.  I stuck to the script each time she called back for the next 
eight hours but at 0400 my patience failed and I asked if she had ever 
seen the skeleton of a dead cat in a tree.  She became furious and said 
that it did not prove anything.  I replied that what it proved was that 
when the cat got tired enough, hungry enough, or horny enough it would 
come down.  She said I was a rude young man and I replied that I had 
never denied that.  The next call was one half hour later just like the 
previous calls.  As soon as she started in about the cat I asked "is 
that cat on fire?"  She assured me that she would see that my rudeness 
cost me my job.  I replied that after more than sixteen of her calls I 
would be happy to be fired.  0730 comes and I am once again on the phone 
with this women.  The deputy chief comes in and sensing my irritation he 
told me to put her through to his desk.  He was on the phone to her for 
fifteen minutes and the fire chief came in.  The deputy chief said your 
right mam we should take care of it and I will be right there.  He 
walked into the chief's office and asked for two hours of personal 
leave.  He then came up to the desk and pealed off five twenty dollar 
bills.  In the aftermath of proposition thirteen the city manager had 
ordered rental schedules prepared for all city equipment.  The deputy 
chief looked me right in the eye and said "one triple.  One quarter 
hour."  I made out the rental form and watched the deputy walk into the 
apparatus bay.  I told the fire chief that the deputy may have lost it 
and we had better stop him.  We both hopped into the chiefs buggy and 
went off after him.  The engines in this town had both PTO and mid ship 
pumps.  The deputy chief pulled up in front of the home, engaged the 
PTO, and aimed a deck gun with an ancient mystery nozzle on it into the 
tree.  We had stopped a full block away when the fire chief realized 
that he was too late to stop what was going to happen.  In order to 
escape the water the cat leapt to the roof top and when last seen was 
three houses away and still running.  The deputy chief climbed into the 
cab and drove back to the station.  The fire chief said "we were never 
here." and also drove back.  Since I was a seasonal employee I happily 
took the call from the city manager.  If he had fired me I would have 
received unemployment for the entire school semester.  He demanded to 
know who had sprayed the water into the tree.  I told him that the unit 
in question was out on rental.  When he asked to who I reminded him that 
the city solicitor had said that information about citizens could not be 
given out to anyone.  He hung up in my ear.  I do not know if he ever 
learned who had done the dirty deed.
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Tom
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Tom