These Guys Dedicate Their Life to Rescuing Cats From Trees

Any proud owner of a cat that has the pleasure of venturing out into nature will at some point probably experience that moment when your little tiger got a little too courageous got stuck in a tree that it wanted to scale.

When you can’t get your kittie down yourself the usual options in these situations are to wait it out and hope for the best, or to call the fire department. If you’re lucky enough to live in Washington State, you have also have a third option: call a non-profit founded for the sole purpose of rescuing cats from trees.

Canopy Cat Rescue, founded by professional arborists and tree-climbers Shaun Sears and his partner Tom Otto, started in 2007 when the two friends opened a business to work with local governments and wildlife groups to build osprey nests and install cameras in eagle, owl, and heron nests.

As business started going, they began receiving calls from desperate pet owners whose cats had climbed up a tree and couldn’t get down. Otto and Sears already charged only a fraction of what other services would charge, but when they sensed a hint of hesitation in their client’s voice upon hearing the fee, they’d provide their service for free.

That’s when the idea to start a rescue company that ran solely on donations came into the picture. “We believe all cats deserve to be rescued, regardless of someone’s ability to pay,” Sears says.

Now they’re handling multiple calls a day, scaling trees as high as 50 meters to rescue cats in return for nothing more than gas money and maybe a little extra for their time. So far, donations from well-meaning people are enough to keep them in business.

“It feels so good to say we do this just for the donation, for whatever the owner can afford,” says Otto. “It gives our tree climbing careers more focus, and in a selfish way, it makes me look forward to every day I get to do a cat rescue.”