Saving Emma, the cat

We had a little excitement here yesterday.

(As if our life was lacking in the excitement department...)

We hadn't seen Emma, the cat, in a couple of days.

Ellie was worried, so she started a hunt for Emma.

She looked everywhere, eventually asking her brother 

to ride to the back of our road with her.

I was minding my own business, 

when all of a sudden the kids are all running in,

yelling, "WE FOUND EMMA!!"

In shock, I hear that she is way in the back of our property,

and WAY up in a tree.

This poor cat has been up in this tree for two days 

and two nights, I think.  I must save her...

So, I drive the beater pickup (that has grass growing IN it) 

to the tree in which Emma is stuck.

She is meowing so sadly...

We took the brush cutters and cut away the brush.

Prickly brush, all over.

We made our way to the tree, thinking one of our

 tree climbing girls could just climb up and get her.

Not good climbing trees, and Emma is higher than we thought.

 I feel bad for Emma,

and for Ellie who spent the morning crying.

So I did what any mother would do.

I determined that I will rescue this kitty.

I thought about calling the fire department,

she was very high up in the tree, after all.

Then I remembered a very cool fact.

Emma hides out in the loft of our garage.

To get down, she climbs down a ladder, head first.

(Now that's an amazing cat!)

So I drove the beater truck back to the house,

used my mighty strength to lift this tall ladder into the truck,

and drove back to the far away tree.

We extended the ladder as high as it would go,

hoping Emma would think she was in the loft

and climb down.

Not so easy...

We got kitty treats and tried to coax her down.

Nope.

Her meowing was hoarse and she made us 

sadder by the minute.

I climbed up as high as I could go, 

thinking about the story my kids would tell

about the day they watched their mom die...

wondering if I would even be able to make it down holding a cat.

I couldn't quite reach her anyway.

So I came down, and tried to figure out 

how to win a different way.

Then, Danica so bravely volunteered to climb up.

I coached her up the ladder, prouder than proud 

of my normally timid daughter.

She could not get high enough either.

But wait.  Emma sees Danica, and tries to climb to her.

In her attempt, Emma lost footing and fell partway down the tree,

catching herself, upside down.

She lost footing again and fell all the way down, 

landing on her feet, of course!

So there we were,

Heroes.

We didn't need firemen.

This time, we were the heroes.

Well, we got the cat to fall out of the tree anyway.

And she was safe and out of the tree.

Does that make us heroes?