You never see a cat skeleton in a tree, goes the old saw. But a New Jersey tabby almost proved that pithy aphorism false.

Suzanne Gannone of Franklin Township, N.J., had been missing her cat, Baby, for about a week. But on Saturday she saw the 9-month-old feline stuck high in a tree.

She called the police to report Baby’s perilous situation and ask for help. Patrolman Kevin Bollaro was dispatched to the residence and saw that the cat was about 60 feet up in the tree.

When Bollaro contacted the Quakertown Fire Department for assistance, they told him they didn’t have a ladder high enough to reach the cat.

“Our ladders are 35 feet,” said Chief Bradley Patkochis. As usual, the firefighters told Gannone that Baby might climb down on her own.

If she didn’t, they promised they’d come back and rescue her with the help of another fire department.

The cat didn’t come down.

Later that day, Patkochis’s crew returned, this time with firefighters from nearby High Bridge, who brought their ladder truck and got the cat out of the tree.

Patkochis said that he considers cat rescues “doing a public service.”

Ironically, Baby had been an unplanned and unwanted surprise from one of Gannone’s adult cats.

“We weren’t going to keep [her],” she said, and that’s why the kitten never got a real name. In a pinch, Gannone calls the cat Baby.

But nobody can resist a kitten for long, and Baby worked her way into Gannone’s heart. Now, nine months later, she’s a beloved member of the family.

Baby was “all skin and bones” when she was rescued, Gannone said. “She ate a whole can of cat food. I had to hold her all night.”

Gannone believes one of her daughter’s boyfriends accidentally let the cat out, and Baby’s unfamiliarity with the outdoors may have frightened her enough to make her run up the tree.

She is grateful to the volunteers and firefighters who rescued Baby from the tree. And after her adventure and dramatic rescue, Gannone says the cat is never going outside again.

[Source: Hunterdon County Democrat]