G'morning Heather, 

 MM> awoken at 4am by an urgent thought for an event plan
 MM> for the Cycling Club, everybody assumed I was available for
 MM> back- scratching, cat feeding, lunch-preparation and car
 MM> refueling....
 HL> That's cats for you.

Mmmm ... one of those American correspondent's wrote saying that 
"As one who is an unabashed admirer of cats, telling this story is 
somewhat painful.  This is a true story which happened during the 
late 1970's.  My wife has firsthand knowledge of the circumstances 
since, at the time, she was a police officer in whose jurisdiction 
the incident occurred.

There is a small rural town, somewhat northeast to the city of 
Niagara Falls, NY.  One evening, a resident of the town called the 
local volunteer fire department to request assistance in removing 
their cat from a tree.

Since this was a "questionable" call, the fire control dispatcher 
called the fire chief at home to ask if he wanted to respond. The 
chief said sure, call out the department, since it was early 
evening and it shouldn't be a problem for the volunteers to 
respond.

The fire department responded with a rescue truck which had an 
extension ladder.  The tree, however, was too tall and willowy to 
support the weight of the extension ladder.  Rather than send men 
back to the fire hall to bring the aerial ladder truck, one of the 
firefighters suggested an alternate course of action.

Two of the firefighters supported the ladder while a third climbed 
high enough to tie a rope around the tree at about half its 
height.

The other end of the rope was tied to a trailer hitch on a pickup
truck, with the truck slowly driven forward, forcing the tree to 
bend over. One firefighter was poised to grab the cat as soon as 
it was within his reach.

The knot securing the rope to the trailer hitch slipped free.

The cat was last seen airborne heading south toward the city of 
Niagara Falls, and was never seen again.

This incident adds a rather new definition to the word "catapult".

Needless to say, the particular fire department did not receive 
praise from the local ASPCA when the story made its rounds.  
Please note that this story is not meant to put down volunteer 
fire departments, who perform a dedicated and essential community 
function."

:-))
 
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