PREVIEW

WORDS BYLINE: Megan Carr
A cat’s rescue from a tall tree has been captured on camera, two weeks after the moggy went missing.
Momo spent three days stuck 50ft up in a sycamore tree at an army barracks in Kent, before being brought back down to safety by a local tree surgeon.
Connor Carey has become something of a specialist after retrieving countless pets and even drones and remote-controlled planes over the years.
The 30-year-old, who owns Maidstone Tree Surgeons, was called in after Momo was found stuck in a sycamore tree at Maidstone’s Army barracks.
Momo had disappeared on September 13 and was spotted by a neighbour five days later, before vanishing again.
He was eventually found after a neighbour heard him meowing from the tree, where he had been stuck for around 72 hours.
Connor first heard about Momo’s plight after people began contacting him on social media, having seen that he had previously rescued felines from sticky situations.
He said: “I think I had a call, a couple of messages, a few DMs and people tagging me in a post.
“As soon as I saw ‘cat rescue’, I was like, ‘Ah, that’s another one.’
“I asked the original poster if they could get the owner of the cat to get in touch.
“I was at work when they called and said, ‘Look, we’ve still got this cat situation going on. Is there anything you can do to help?’”
Connor said a cherry picker at the barracks was unable to reach high enough to get the moggy, and the fire brigade had previously been called but had been unable to reach the cat due to the height of the tree and difficulties getting equipment to it.
A Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) spokesperson confirmed they were called at 1.20pm on Saturday, September 26, to reports of a cat stuck in a tree.
They said: “One fire engine attended, and crews used reach and rescue poles in an attempt to retrieve the cat, but the animal climbed to a higher position.
“Due to the location of the tree, a height vehicle could not be operated.
“Firefighters and the technical rescue unit returned the next day (September 27) but following an assessment of the tree, concerns were raised about structural stability, and no further actions could be taken.
“The pet owner was advised to contact KFRS again if the cat climbed to a lower, safer position, or to contact a professional tree surgeon for further assessment.”
Connor, who has worked as a tree surgeon for around 13 years, estimated Momo was between 50ft and 55ft above the ground.
It took him around 15 minutes to climb the tree and another 20 minutes to carry out the rescue.
He said: “It was a sycamore, which makes it tricky because sycamore is really, really snappy.
“Obviously, you’ve got a cat dangling from these branches and me.
“Every single time we went a little bit higher, it got more and more sketchy because these branches could break at any point.
“That was my main concern during the whole process.”
When Connor reached Momo, he found him clinging to the tree.
He said: “He was very shaken, very nervous, meowing a lot and calling a lot. He was clamped to the tree.
“You’ve got to think, after that amount of time, he’s going to be dehydrated and hungry. His muscles must have been absolutely shattered.
“He was clearly very nervous and distressed.”
The next challenge was getting close enough to put Momo into a rescue bag.
Connor said: “Some cats will just go, ‘Oh my God, yeah, save me,’ and get in the bag.
“But Momo, I think he’d been up there for so long and he was so scattered in his head.
“He was just like, ‘No, get me away from this weird man with all this jangly metal stuff on him.’”
Connor climbed further up the tree onto thinner branches and bent another branch around to give Momo more support.
He then began clearing smaller branches so he could get closer to him.
“As it bent, the only option I had was to try and pull that branch back round,” he said.
“As I did, I had just enough reach to grab him.
“I literally scruffed him like their mum would and stuffed him in a bag.
“It makes it sound a little bit brutal, but that’s what you’ve got to do at that point.
“The owner’s pet is in my care. The only option I’ve really got is to scruff the cat, get it in the bag and secure it.”
Connor joked the difficult part was then getting the bag closed, adding: “You just think, ‘Are there claws coming?’
“But after the sketchy bit, it went quite smoothly.”
Momo’s owner was waiting on the ground when Connor brought him down.
The family had described Momo as a fairly plump cat, but Connor said he appeared to have lost weight while he had been missing.
He said: “He was relieved and so happy to have him back.
“I think he got to the point where he thought, ‘Well, the cat’s probably just going to fall.’
“I guess it was a relief to have him down safely.”
But the unusual call-out was nothing new for Connor, who says he has now lost count of the number of cats he has rescued.
He believes his first was in around 2016 or 2017 and his rescues have since earned him a reputation locally.
“I’ve done loads of cat rescues,” he said. “I seem to have a bit of a name for it.
“It’s quite a niche thing, isn’t it? Grabbing cats from the tops of trees.
“I did a video a little while ago that went kind of viral, and I got quite a name for it.
“So, yeah, I’m the cat man now.”
He has also been called upon to retrieve drones and remote-controlled planes from trees.
Connor, who lives near Detling Hill, describes tree surgery as a “weird mix between skill and lunacy”.
He said: “There’s definitely a lot of skill, a lot of planning as well, because people don’t realise how much you have to plan your route as you’re going up the tree.
“It’s not like you just start at the bottom and work your way up.
“There’s a little bit more that goes into it, spotting potential features in the tree that might be dangerous, like dead wood or cavities, or unions that might not be structurally sound.
“There’s a lot to consider.”
Connor got into the industry after a friend introduced him to tree work, and he went on to work for local tree surgeons before spending several years contract climbing.
He later set up his own business, which has been running in its current form for around six years.
Despite the dangers involved, Connor says he enjoys the work.
He said: “The industry is fraught with danger, but I think that can be mitigated by careful planning, being qualified, knowing what you’re doing and having a good team around you as well.”
Connor charged Momo’s family a fee for the rescue as he had to leave an active job and his team on site to attend. He is now happy to officially count cat rescues among the services his business offers.
“Cat rescue is a service that I provide, yeah,” he said. “It’s not something that I’m going to rely on to keep the heating on, but it’s something we can do.”
Momo is now safely back home, he added.
“He’s eating, drinking, and I think he’s very happy to be home. I can’t imagine that he’s going to spend much time up trees in the future.”
To follow Connor’s latest work and rescues, search Maidstone Tree Surgeons on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.