By admin 
Cinder’s bellowing cries could be heard down the block from the cypress tree where he’d gotten himself stuck.
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It was just before noon on Saturday and a crowd of roughly 20 people had gathered on a 22nd Street sidewalk in Boulevard Park.
The crowd watched as two men from an Oroville-based tree company, Jaramillo Tree Services, worked on the roof of a house, attempting to pull the tree down far enough that one of them could grab Cinder, a gray cat who is about a year old. He had been in the tree since at least Friday afternoon.
The risk: If the men lost control of the tree, it could create a literal cat-a-pult.
“It’s terrifying that that might happen,” said Alisha Wiborn, who lives across the street with Cinder, as she stood watching the action.
The dramatic scene that unfolded was a show of quick thinking, community spirit and what it can take to get a cat down from a tree.
How the cat got stuck in the tree
Wiborn said she didn’t know how Cinder, who is an indoor cat, got out. Nor did she know when he made his way up the tree, which is approximately 30 feet tall.
She realized something was amiss when she returned home around 3:30 p.m. Friday when she returned from her job as a yard duty at Washington Elementary School. She recognized Cinder’s voice, coming from the direction of a neighboring house across the street.
“I heard him crying and I followed the sound of his cries,” Wiborn said. “I thought maybe he was lost in their front yard and I look up, and he’s in the tree.”
She immediately called the city, though a quick rescue wasn’t in the cards. Sacramento City Councilman Phil Pluckebaum explained why this was in a phone interview on Saturday afternoon.
“I think we all know the image of a firefighter rescuing a kitten, but I don’t think that’s been a standard municipal practice in a long time,” Pluckebaum said.
Wiborn said she called a non-emergency line, speaking with both police and fire personnel and that she was told nothing could be done. She let her husband Ronnie Barnes know what was going on, and he called animal control. Later on Friday evening, Barnes was able to get Engine 2 from the Sacramento Fire Department to come out, Wiborn said.
“They pretty much laughed at me and said there’s nothing they can do, leave a bowl of food, which I did and the raccoons ate it,” Wiborn said.
Fire spokesperson Justin Sylvia did not respond to a request for comment.
Ryan Hinderman, a spokesperson for the city’s Front Street Animal Shelter, said he couldn’t speak for the fire department but that animal control generally avoids rescuing cats from trees as they will generally climb down on their own and trying to get them down sooner can scare them or create the risk of injury.
“If a cat was up in a tree for a really prolonged period of time, where it started to become like a health or safety risk for the cat, we might get involved to coordinate something,” Hinderman said. “But typically, if it’s someone’s owned cat, they’re responsible for their pets.”
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Megan Martens, who lives by the tree where Cinder found himself, wasn’t pleased with how the city handled the situation.
“It’s just kind of an interesting thing about if we don’t have those services anymore, whose job is it to tell us that we don’t have those services?” Martens said.
What happened on Saturday morning
Cinder’s family, which includes children Everett Barnes, 9 and Penelope Barnes, 7, experienced a tense night Friday.
Barnes headed out early Saturday morning to his job at Freeport Bakery in Land Park, running on about two hours of sleep and avoiding Cinder’s yowling. “I heard him yell, and I was like, ‘I can’t miss work,’” said Barnes, his eyes bloodshot.
Wiborn began calling arborists on Saturday morning. Several declined to take the job due to liability concerns, Wiborn said, before she located a company from Oroville, Jaramillo Tree Services, that happened to be in the neighborhood.
“They told me they can’t promise anything, but they will at least give it a shot to try to get him out of the tree,” Wiborn said.
Alissa King, who parked nearby with her roommate to visit the Midtown Farmer’s Market, heard a cat meowing and began to look for it.
“We got invested,” King said. “We just wanted to make sure the cat was okay. I have a cat, so I’m like wanting to make sure he’s good.”
Shortly before noon, the two men atop the roof from Jaramillo Tree Services were able to finally get hold of Cinder.
A big cheer erupted from the people on the street below. Cinder was brought down a ladder to his waiting family. Wiborn put both hands in the air. She then hugged a neighbor who had helped to raise awareness about the situation and also helped to pay the $160 cost of the cat rescue.
“The best thing is the kitty is fine,” said Ana Ochoa, a representative for Jaramillo Tree Services.
King marvelled at what happened.
“It really gives you like a sense of community because all these people, every single neighbor is out here, people are stopping on their way back from the farmers market,” King said.
Penelope Barnes knew what she was going to do as soon as she got inside her house to see Cinder.
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“Pick him up,” she said.