It was deja vu all over again." -- baseball hall of famer Yogi Berra

Malapropisms aside, Ozzie the cat is becoming a regular member of the north Georgia tree climbing community. Unfortunately, the 7-year-old yellow tabby only knows how to go up a tree; he still hasn't figured out the coming-down part.

The cell phone rang about 9 a.m. this morning and the lady on the other end identified herself as a satisfied customer of our free cat-rescue service courtesy of the Treeclimber's Coalition and TreeTrek Exploration. (It's not really free -- we insist on donations for the local humane society/animal shelter.)

It seemed that Ozzie, whose previous rescue two years ago made the front page of the local newspaper complete with color photographs, had decided it was safer about 45 feet up in a pair of yellow pines than on the ground with the local coyotes and red foxes. His owner said Ozzie had been missing for six days and was probably up the tree the whole time.

I got a DRT line to about 35 feet, which was low enough to keep from "spooking" Ozzie, and then made another 10-foot pitch to get almost even with him. I did a second anchor point out on a thinner branch for balance, and then began inching my way out toward the tip of his limb. Ozzie was so delighted to see me that he stood, stretched and yawned, and then simply walked over and crawled into my lap. It was too simple.

Ozzie even began to purr.

I'd brought my long leather firefighter's gloves, so I used them to stuff Ozzie into the canvas "cat rescue" bag, attached the bag to the down rope and lowered him to the ground. There were no newspaper reporters or photographers around this time, but a half-dozen neighborhood kids snapped cell-phone pictures of me with Ozzie in my arms.

Three or four minutes later, the celebrity cat was inside his house and lapping up about six days worth of drinking water. The parents of several of the kids were outside, so I immediately began handing out flyers about our twice-a-month tree climbs at the local nature preserve.

Ozzie has been so good for our business that Swamp Fox and I are thinking about putting that cat on the payroll -- every few months we'll just throw him up in a tree in some crowded neighborhood and then rescue him.

Good job Bill.

Puttin' the cat on the payroll sounds like a good plan! LOL! By the way the cat behaved toward you, he must be thinking the same thing.