Central Texas business rescues cat stuck up in a tree for 24 hours

LORENA, Texas (KWTX) - A cat stuck up in a tree for 24 hours was rescued thanks to a local business going above and beyond.

Mosby Land Management Service in Chilton advertises everything from land clearing to demolition and road building to dirt work, but they don’t list cat rescues.

“I don’t recall doing anything like this in the past,” laughed owner Josh Mosby, who has had the business for 23 years.

That all changed this past week when Mosby got a call from a friend that a family in Lorena needed help getting their beloved cat, Loki, down from a tree.

“My cat, Loki, climbed up this tree. I mean, way up there, and we tried with local law enforcements and sheriffs, and what not, to see if anyone could help get this cat out of the tree with no avail,” said Lorena resident Mary Ann Pope.

Mary Ann and her sister, Judy Hood, rescued 4-month-old Loki at just 3 weeks old in DeSoto after reading a post on Facebook made by a woman needing a home for a kitten found abandoned without his mom.

Mary Ann and Judy drove to get the kitten, brought it home, and Mary Ann bottle fed him. Mary Ann said that helped them grow a special bond.

Last Monday, at around 4:15 p.m. the sisters were out enjoying the afternoon sunshine on their rural property on Bullhide Creek when Loki, for the first time, took off and began to climb.

“Like a movie playing in slow motion,” Mary Ann said.  “I saw my sister jump out of her chair and run down the little hill to that tree and then I saw Loki hit the tree.”

The family tried for several hours to get the cat down but were not successful.  They worried nightfall would bring the worst as their property has owls and hawks.

Mary Ann tried feverishly to get help by spreading the word on social media and calling multiple law enforcement agencies but had no luck.

Mary Ann’s son-in-law then sent a Facebook message to Mosby, a friend of his, and Mosby originally thought it was a joke.

“He asked, ‘do you still have a bucket truck,’ and I said, ‘yeah, I still got one,’ and he said, ‘well, I’ve got a friend of ours who has a cat stuck in the tree.’ And I said ‘well, what do you really got? What do you really need help with?’ And he said, “No, really. We got a cat stuck in a tree. Been there at least a day,’” Mosby recalled.

Mosby and his animal-loving sister-in-law, Judy Hood, who works in his office, hopped in the truck and drove the 30 miles to the scene.

They then used a bucket truck to hoist Judy up in the air and over to where she could take Loki’s grip off the tree.

“We got the cat out of the tree.  My sister-in-law, she did all the work. I just ran the controls for the bucket and got the cat down,” Mosby said.

Mosby told Mary Ann not to pay him, though she insisted on paying something, if even, gas expenses.

It’s the least she could do, she says.

“He came out and got my little guy out of the tree for me and I’m so grateful and thankful and just the hospitality and the warmth that he shared,” Mary Ann said.  “He just seemed to enjoy coming out and helping people who need it, and living in the country, it’s quite difficult, I found out, to get any other kind of help so I’m very grateful for him.”

Mary Ann posted the video of the rescue on social media, but Mosby said he didn’t respond with the expectation of being recognized.

He did it, he says, because it was the right thing to do.

“The biggest thing is we’ve been doing stuff a long time and you reach a point in life it’s not necessarily about, it’s not all about making a living,” Mosby said.  “You’ve got to do stuff to help stuff out and every once in a while, someone gets in a pinch, and you’ve got to help them out and if you can’t do that then you kind of lose sight of what you’re doing. Sometimes there’s more important things than making money.”

Loki is enjoying the country view this week by lounging on the interior window seal at home.

His family says that’ll have to do, until they build him a cat house outside under the porch.

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