After spending 10 long hours on the Iowa River on Thursday, the Best Friends Rapid Response team was called to the scene of a cat stuck in a tree surrounded by high waters.
So that night, Rapid Response manager Rich Crook and first responder Ethan Gurney got back in their flat-bottomed boat and motored back out to Oakville – for one last run of the day.
As they moved upstream and neared a long row of trees, Ethan began to whistle. That’s when the cat started meowing. “Sure enough,” Rich says, “there was the cat, in a tree.”
While Rich piloted the boat to the tree, Ethan stood up, reached out and grabbed the cat, who didn’t even put up a fuss. Because they’d found him in a tree, they named the cat Squirrel.
Squirrel slept in the team’s RV Thursday night. They haven’t found his people yet, so they’re turning Squirrel over to an area animal shelter, where all pets are being held until their people can claim them.
So far, the Best Friends team has rescued 12 cats – including Squirrel – from mostly second floors of homes and farmhouses in the tiny town of Oakville, which has a population of roughly 400.
About Squirrel’s rescue, Rich says, “It’s nice to end your day that way.”
In another rescue, this one Friday morning, the team headed out in their boat to look for six cats and a puppy stranded in a house. But on their way to Oakville, they met up on the river with the pets’ family, who had managed to make it back to their home and get their pets out safely and into their boat.
On Friday, the Best Friends team was expecting to be deployed farther downstream, to Burlington.
Written by Cathy Scott.
Video by Michael Hand.
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