OH No Garland!!!!

Yep, this is another solemn story about a cat caught up in a tree, but it was never intending to come back down.

The cat named after the family's last name, was part of a litter of kittens that made Garland the runt of the bunch. Garland was so independent and so carefree, that the last thing running, or on Garland's mind was to make his way up the tree, without thinking about how to then get back down.

It was this one morning that grandmother was out trying to find a stray dog or cat to take home with her, even though she was no longer living at her former address. Grandmother Garland was as eccentric as they can be, still wanting to punish bad little boys and girls when they raised their voices or were back talking.

Grandmother Garland found this one animal, which happen to be a kitten stuck in a tree, an old oak tree, with some branches no longer showered leaves, instead was bare and withering, on a good day. She heard a meowing noise and went to investigate the sound.

As she was nearing the tree, she heard the sound louder and more distinctly. Her ears perked up and leaned into the sound that was no higher up than maybe the third or fourth branch, yet at her age, she knew getting up there was next to impossible, not to say dangerous and risky.

Grandmother Garland pulled out her ancient cell phone to dial 911. The operator asked "Ma'am, what is your emergency?" Grandmother Garland announced, "There is a kitten stuck up in a tree."

The operator continued, "Well ma'am that is not considered an emergency." "If we were to attend to every single call we get here, all day long, then we would not have time to handle to real emergencies that we need to pay more attention to daily." "Is there anything else or an actual emergency?"

Grandmother Garland, retorted, "How is this not an emergency?" "How can you say that this is a non-emergency, when here it is that as an 89-year-old senior citizen, I was trying to avoid my climbing up the tree myself to rescue the kitten, but you make it sound like I am crazy or something else."

Grandmother Garland continued to wait for an answer but only heard the dial tone since the operator had hung up. This pissed her off, was nothing less of rudeness and lack of cooperation, with this, she decided to find a way to rescue the stranded kitten herself.

As she found a ladder in the garage and picking it up grabbed some rope and a basket. While she hurried towards to tree, propping the ladder on an even part of the ground around the tree, she then hoisted up the rope with the basket tied on the end for the kitten to safely sit in.

After she had stepped on the fifth rung, she was almost close enough to reach out and grab the kitten from the tree limb, but the kitten backed away suddenly, almost causing the good Samaritan to slip off the ladder to fall onto the ground. She regained her balance and moved upward to be closer still to the kitten, trying to successfully rescue him.

While she was distracted with this, some onlookers came over to see what the commotion was about. Someone had called the local news station, who had sent a camera crew. Grandmother Garland's grandson arrived after getting off his bicycle. He yelled up at Grandmother Garland, announcing the kitten's name was Garland. All Grandmother Garland could hear was the name of the kitten, Garland.

She tried to coax the kitten down, by calling out its name, which at first scared the kitten backwards further. It was because all the onlookers were calling out its name, so Grandmother Garland had to devise a plan that would help the kitten move forward and to help her to move it off the branch and into the basket.

She reached into her pocket removing a ball of string, to use as a diversion, and to lure the kitten into the basket. The kitten was not fooled and was still in the same spot that it had been until now presently.

Grandmother Garland was losing patience and then placed the basket with the rope slightly lower than the branch that the kitten was on. She decided to use the ball of string as a way to lure the kitten into the basket, in hopes that this would help the kitten not to be afraid and then land into the basket safely.

There was a silence in the air as the crowd below was waiting in anticipation. This was the moment of truth as they all were looking up and hoping the kitten would be saved. The kitten edged towards the waiting basket and in a split second was dropping into the basket.

It landed in the middle of the basket; all the while grabbing hold of the ball of string to play and enjoy on the trip down to the ground. It was then that the police arrived, parking near the oak tree, in time to see the kitten in the basket being lifted down to the ground in the basket.

The Sargeant who came over to this sight, asked to speak with the person who had made the daring rescue. "Who helped this kitten get down from the oak tree safely?" Grandmother Garland was amazed that anyone had shown up to help, even if they had arrived too late to help out. With silence Grandmother Garland decided it best to remain silent, even after she had finished and was now removing the ladder, rope and basket.

About then, the kitten jumped out of the basket, scurried up the oak tree, returning to the same limb that it had been on, but this time was to be different.

When the kitten raced up the tree, after landing on the limb, it decided to slowly turn around, heading back down the way it had climbed up and found the ground safely.

Thus ended the mystery of how a kitten can be shown how to climb up and climb down safely in one afternoon.