Jake, Catherine, and the Tree

Good morning,

That's our daughter, Catherine, holding her friend Erica's dog, Jake.  Below is the email I received from Catherine yesterday.  She sent it to me and to a number of our dog club friends. For those who don't know where all this is happening, Club Brit is Erica's home where she harbors, er, uh, rescues Brittanys.  I believe there are eleven dogs at Club Brit right now.

Here goes the story as told by our daughter, Catherine, about what happened when she went to walk Erica's dogs while Erica was out of town:

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Most of you have already heard about the fire department bringing Erica's dog Jake out of the tree yesterday from about 20 feet up.

Apparently, I didn't get the memo that Jake is supposed to be leash walked until we have a solution to the dog climbing tree problem.

I also didn't really know what 20 feet up in the tree looked like until this morning.

I brought my pups up to play with Erica's pups and was enjoying my second cup of coffee when I saw a flash of Brittany White in the pine tree in Erica's yard.

Now, this tree is approaching 3 stories tall, and Jake is up there practicing to be next year's tree topper at Christmas.  Several small birds, perhaps tree swallows, are 180 degrees in the branches looking at Jake and laughing.

I approached the bottom of the tree, "Jake, get down here so I can kick your butt!!!" For some reason, this garnered no response.

I called Erica to tell her I was going in.  I took my phone with me in case I got stuck up there, "Help, I've elevated and I can't get down!"

About halfway up the tree, my two pups figured out that I wasn't where they could be with me, so then I started yelling, "I'm ok, I'll be down soon," in response to their frantic barking.  When I was within reach of Jake, I tried to get him to come to my by grasping the nearest part, his hind leg, and pulling.  No luck.  Another few limbs and I was able to grab his collar and pull him over my shoulder for the ride down.  At about A-frame height I tossed his butt out of the tree.  He promptly ran off to play by the pond.

When I arrived back on solid ground, I realized the tree had eaten my cell phone.  Still somewhat high on adrenaline, I got the dogs in the house, called Erica from the house line to let her know we were back from our space exploration, and then went back out for the cell phone. Fortunately, it was suspended like a strange fruit slightly above my head; no further acrobatics were necessary.

Erica and I are discussing having a video and photo crew for tomorrow morning's visit to Club Brit.  I'm sure it will film better in daylight.  See Toby for tickets to the event.  He's saving for a new foot massage pillow.

Catherine

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Tax season (or any time!) would not have been a good time for Catherine to fall out of a tree.  *sigh*

Catherine should be doing a circus act, or, at least stand up comedy....

Lois