The saving of the cat in Iglesia.

“Well, nuts,” said Geraldine as she peered out of her bay window with the crown molding, gazing forlornly at her cat Alpha who had gotten himself stuck in one of her front yard’s massive oak trees. “This won’t do.” Geraldine had made it a point to keep her cats as indoor cats, but with a house full of that many cats, one was bound to break away at some point. “Oh, dear,” muttered Geraldine as she walked into the living room, looking for her binoculars to better examine Alpha’s predicament and his undoubted distress. “This won’t do at all.”

As she walked from the den into the living room, she happened to see across the street her neighbor Susan, who had apparently noticed that Alpha was stuck up in one of Geraldine’s oak trees. “There’s a cat in that tree, Geraldine,” shouted Susan from across the street. Susan was always getting onto Geraldine’s case about violating HOA guidelines, and she had never much been a fan of living across the street from someone with that many cats, even though they were indoor cats. She felt as though if one of those cats got out, it could cause a whole host of problems, and considering that Susan was the only other woman on the street about Gerladine’s age, she felt deeply embarrassed that Geraldine acted the way she did and kept so many cats.

Iglesia, the neighborhood in which Geraldine and Susan lived, was just outside of Chicago and had a whole host of problems already, thought Susan, without Geraldine’s many cats adding problems to the mix. Susan felt that having so many cats was an unnecessary burden upon the whole neighborhood, when they were already dealing with many problems to begin with. The cost of living on this street was already outrageous, and HOA fees were steep, and the neighborhood was rife with neighbors who bought all the nicest cars and had all the latest tech and wanted to interact all the time. That Geraldine- the biggest outlier on the street- kept so many cats was just beyond fathoming.

When Geraldine moved into this house a year ago, she didn’t know to expect everything Susan was troubled about. She seemed only to care about her cats, playing with each cat and feeding them twice a day, and keeping their water bowls replenished. She had ten cats, and seemed to love those cats more than anything else. But, she did love her house. And she liked the neighborhood despite the fact that most neighbors were flashy about what they owned and had money and flaunted the fact. Still, Susan always seemed to have some problem with her and her many cats.

Iglesia was close to everything, which was a major attraction. It was just on the edge of the urban parts of the city, and it had great access to grocery stores and all kinds of shopping outlets and the best parks and recreation spots and close to the airport and many movie theaters and you had options when it came to stores: everything was close by and not just one iteration of a store was close by but there were many versions of the same store in case lines were long or one store was out of a particular product. So it was the best choice for living if you could afford it, the only problem with the neighborhood was that the neighbors competed with one another so gratuitously.

And then there was Geraldine who seemed totally uninterested in “keeping up with the Joneses” and all she ever did was fawn over her ten cats. This was just beyond Susan’s grasp. And now she had gotten her cat stuck up in a tree. Who keeps that many cats in one house? Just because a house is big enough to keep ten cats, doesn’t mean it should. And really, in Susan’s mind, no house was designed to keep ten cats, even the most palatial ones.

Still Geraldine had ten cats in that house and they all lived quite happily for the most part. They played with one another and played with their scratching posts and they slept, of course, as all cats do, and they cuddled with Geraldine, and lounged about. They got on fine and managed quite well, but if someone came to visit then it was a bit like a circus. With one cat heading in this direction and another cat going there, it was a bit disorienting to get one’s bearings.

A guest might look down the passage and see one cat moving towards the main threshold while another cat or two moved in exactly the opposite direction, licking their tongues into the corners of the evening, and if ever the cats made a sudden leap, Geraldine and her guests were sure to notice. It was disorienting many times to see the cats behave in this way. Seeing one cat linger here and there was not unusual, but to see so many cats coming and going this way and that, was quite confusing, even though one got the impression that that much feline activity was the work of an intelligent God.

Despite all these cats, Geraldine did her best to maintain a clean and tidy home despite all the feline activity. She did not, as it were, allow the cats the run of the house. While they were a huge draw, and a source of pride, she did not convert the home into a kitten den. She made sure the cats lived in her world with her rules and made themselves apparent as a boon and an enhancement to her living space (as best she could) rather than compromising the integrity of the home.

Still arrangements to accommodate the cats had to be made from time to time and Geraldine found that interacting with the cats was a huge source of pleasure for her. There was no pleasure quite like a cat coming up to Geraldine and purring and showering her with attention and playing. But when a cat got out, then it was no longer a source of pleasure, it was terrifying. Having a cat out on the street interacting with neighbors all willy-nilly elicited a huge rush of anxiety and dread, for indoor cats should not be outside.

It was exactly for that reason that Gerlaldine dreaded days like today. She could feel the panic in her veins. And then she heard the alarm. Mirroring her own inner alarm she could hear the “wee-ooo” of the fire truck as it made its way down the street toward her house. As Geraldine made her way back to the front of the house to exit the house and meet the fire team, she could see Susan on her front lawn absolutely raving and looking…distraught? The scene was such a calamity that it was hard not to feel for Gerladine and her odd ways. And really what does a cat mean to us? “Ma’am, there have been reports of a cat stuck in a tree.” “Yes,” said Geraldine as she unfocused from Susan across the street. “My cat Alpha is in the tree.” “Well,” said the fireman, “we are happy to get him down for you.”

Susan looked down the street and saw that the excitement had extricated four or five households from their doings and they were now watching the scene unfold in front of Geraldine’s house. Gawking and laughing at Geraldine who had gotten one of her silly cats stuck in a tree in her front yard. And to make matters worse Geraldine was an absolute mess talking to the fire team in such a devastated way, motioning for the cat in the tree. “Nothing to see here.” Yelled Susan as she walked down the street to address the problem of the onlookers jeering so lustily at Gerladine and her cats.

“Mr. Richards,” chided Susan to her next door neighbor. “You just mind your own business now and stop gawking at this poor woman, I know your mother would not like to hear about the way in which you have ten women coming over and staying in that house from time to time and when I see her at bridge next, I may just tell her.” Well this surprised Mr. Richards like nothing else and he turned around and reentered his home about as quick as you could imagine.

“That’s right folks; party’s over.” Cried Susan as she walked down the block and insisted the neighbors mind their own business. And sure enough each of the five houses that came out to gawk went right back inside to go about their day. So Susan returned home to her front lawn and just as her neighbor was hugging Alpha who had been returned to her from up in the tree, Geraldine looked past the tears in her eyes, across the street to Susan, and saw that Susan nodded in her direction. So she smiled, cried all the more, and went back inside her home so Alpha could be returned to the other nine cats.

And that is the story of the time the fire team came out to rescue a cat from a tree in the little suburb of Iglesia. It is truly a miracle in our modern times that devoted workers can rescue innocent creatures who are in abject distress.