There's a Luna-tic in the Tree!!!!

Oh hey friends, it’s been a while since I wrote about anything other than food.

Also, the last time I did an update on Luna was in August…it’s about time. So much has happened. Where to even begin?

First, Luna keeps on growing. I’m not sure when the picture below was taken but she is smaller in that picture than in real life present moment. Wanna see how little she was when we got her last May?! Scroll through this post! Paul and I don’t notice the growing as much as we did when she was tiny and it felt like she was growing over night, but family who don’t see her for a few months comments on how she’s gotten bigger.

Luna, stop it! Stay little forever! Kthanks!

First change was we started letting Luna outside more in the late summer/fall. She became way too hyper running around the house, attacking any moving thing or body part within sight. She needed to burn off that kitten energy, also she loves being outside…unless it’s wet or snowy, or super cold which meant she barely went outside during December, January, and part of February. It was a rough time for all of us.

While she was out running around our back yard in the summer she got fleas. SO MANY FLEAS!!! Like they were crawling on her face and we could pull them off. I’m pretty sure our yard was infested with them. It took several vet treatments and at-home treatments of flea meds to get rid of them. I felt soooo bad for her and like a bad cat mom. BUT the vet did say that the fleas were extra bad last summer/fall. Thankfully our house has all hard wood floors so we didn’t have too much of an issue with the fleas sticking around our house, just vacuum ALL THE FURNITURE and wash all your clothes! Pro tip!

By letting Luna outside more we learned just how adventurous she was. The below picture is of Luna climbing our tree in January. And by the title of this post, “There’s a Luna-tic in the Tree” you know there must be more to this story…just you wait.

Let me start off by saying that I have my mom to thank for the nickname Luna-tic. my mom came up with it one time when she notcied how crazy and playful Luna can be, and with no warning. One second you’ll be petting her and she’s purring and then next second she will want to play and bite you and run around the house. But such is the nature of a cat…don’t ya just love them?

Okay, so the tree climbing story:

On a calm Tuesday night in October Paul came home from work just as the dusk was beginning to settle in. I was already starting to wonder about Luna because I had let her outside around 3 and then it began to rain about an hour later. I called for her, knowing she wouldn’t want to be stuck outside in the rain, but she didn’t come, which was unusual because she usually is great at coming inside right when we call for her, very excited to check on her food and rub up against our legs and all her favorite things in the house. When I walked around in our backyard yelling her name I heard the faintest “meow” coming from the direction of our neighbors back yard. And by back yard I mean it’s just a dirt parking lot with a few trees and a dumpster – it’s a small apartment building.

It took us a while to find her but we finally found Luna in the neighbors back yard, up a really really tall tree. There were several problems with this scenario.

There were absolutely no lower branches for us (and by us, I mean Paul) to climb up and get her. She was just pacing back and forth on this really large branch, meowing at us in distress, with matted wet fur.
The branch she was on was frightingly close to a an electrical wire.
The sun was setting
It was about to rain again…not just rain but thunder storm…remember the dangerously close electrical wire?
She was only 6 months old at the time and I felt completly responsible…she is my fur baby.

Omg My heart, just re-telling this story…

To make a long story short Paul and I were of course rushing around trying all sorts of different tactics to coax her out of the tree. Nothing worked because she was too scared/didn’t know how to get down.

In case you’re wondering, the fire department does not rescue cats from trees like you see in the movies – at least not in bigger cities here, maybe in really small towns where they can afford to spare a fire truck for an hour. We did call the non-emergency police number (even though it sure felt like an emergency to us at the time) and they suggested calling the fire department. HA even the non-emergency police dispatchers think that fire departments rescue cats! Total MYTH!

Eventually we ended up driving to Menard’s and buying a really tall and expensive extension ladder and got back to the tree only to find out that it was too short by several feet. Paul had to stand on the vertical stilts of the ladder (not the actual step of the ladder, but the literal end of it) and reach for her on Luna on his tippy-toes while I braced the ladder below – all in pouring rain and pitch black darkness. And all while we had to listen to the distressed cries of our baby girl.

After what felt like an eternity of this scene happening while I was thinking positive, believing thoughts that no one would be injured – Paul did some sort of risky maneuver by grabbing Luna’s arm and pulling her into his. Then he heroically climbed down the ladder with one arm while holding our wet and scared kitten in the other arm.

I carried her into our house and let her dry herself off. She seemed relieved to be back inside her warm house and maybe a little bit embarrassed.

That was an evening we won’t forget.

Luna has climbed trees since that incident, but not that same one and now that she is bigger she seems perfectly capable of getting down by herself. Since the fact our vet said that cats, even kittens will figure out a way to climb down by themselves before they starve to death. Maybe that’s true but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink that night knowing our 6 month old kitten was stuck in a tree during a thunder storm next to a power line.

The things we do for pets, right?! But just look at that face!

Sometime late fall we got Luna spayed and a microchip inserted. We decided to keep all of her claws. Although, we are all very happy we made this decision sometimes my skin and furniture isn’t. But it’s so much fun to watch Luna play to the best of her ability and to know that she will better be able to defend herself if she is up against another cat or animal outside.

Luna couldn’t leave her stitches from the surgery alone, so we had to put a cone on her.

OMG you guys, she was so sad while wearing that cone. It was a week straight of her sitting in the corner all hunched over looking so depressed and so disoriented. She would bump into everything with her cone whenever she tried to go anywhere. She hated every second of it.

The two benefits for us while she was wearing the cone was 1) she was very cuddly. 2) she was calm at all times and never ran around the house like a luna-tic.

Luna had to wear the cone again soon after she was spayed because she came inside with some sort of cut on her arm that got infected. And of course she couldn’t resist licking that too.

Thankfully we have had a few quiet months with Luna, there hasn’t been any other drama or unexpected vet trips. Although now that Luna is bigger and can jump higher she has become more destructive, breaking vases and water glasses….ugh!

This is a fun stage for a cat, it’s kind of the teenager stage. Luna is still very kitten- like at times, very playful and energetic. Yet, she’s more independent and doesn’t want to cuddle as much as she did when she was a tiny kitten, I miss that. She is very friendly to people, greeting them when they walk in the house, following them around and rubbing against their legs. No hiding under the couch for this girl. She’s bold and adventurous and moody at times, sweet, kind, loves to crawl into any box, is curious, and so playful. We love that she is a a part of our little family.

I mean how can you not?