No good deed goes unpunished! Teen, 17, scales 35-foot tree to rescue cat only to later be saved by firefighter while cat watches on unfazed
- The rescue took place around a tree at Holliday Park in Indianapolis on Saturday
- The teen, identified only as ‘Owen,’ was trying to rescue a cat by climbing 35 feet up a tree
- A bystander called the Indianapolis Fire Department, which was able to lower the boy safely to the ground about two hours after
- He was checked out by medics, found to have only a few scrapes and ultimately was released to his parents
- Firefighters were not able to rescue to cat and its 21-year-old owner ended up hiring a private company to retrieve the pet
A teenager who scaled a tree at an Indianapolis park to rescue a cat he spotted high up in the branches ended up stuck himself and in need of a rescue, officials said.
The 17-year-old boy was at Holliday Park on Indianapolis’ north side on Saturday at around 5 p.m., when he saw the cat and decided to rescue it by climbing 35 feet into the tree, according to the Indianapolis Fire Department.
The teen, identified in the release only as ‘Owen,’ told firefighters ‘he was trying to do a good deed and bring the cat to safety,’ wrote Rita Reith, the department’s spokeswoman.
‘While Owen had no trouble climbing up the tree – his positioning did not allow the same ease for getting down,’ she added.
Firefighting crews were called to the park and lowered the boy safely to the ground about two hours later.
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A distressed boy named Owen found himself stuck high in an Indiana tree after attempting to rescue a cat that had climbed up. He was later rescued by local firefighters
The cat, belonging to a young woman in the area, was stuck high-up on a tree’s branch at Holliday Park in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was later rescued by a private company
The Indianapolis Fire Department sent a crew of a dozen of firefighters to the park to rescue Owen. Nobody suffered serious injuries as a result of the incident
Among the rescue crew was a firefighter who climbed up the tree to set up a rope system to get Owen back to ground level.
By the time Owen’s rescue started, more than a dozen firefighters were standing in position around the tree, with a crowd of bystanders gathering nearby, as he held on to a thick branch and waited, photos show.
The department also released video of the rescue.
The teen was checked out by medics, found to have only a few scrapes, and was released to his parents, although the cat remained in the tree.
Overall, it roughly took about an hour after the arrival of the Indianapolis Fire Department at Holliday Park to bring Owen down to safety
‘The cat seemed to enjoy the commotion but made no effort to climb down the tree,’ Reith wrote.
Reith also said Monday that the cat’s 21-year-old owner ended up hiring a private company to retrieve the feline.
Underneath the Indianapolis Fire Department’s Facebook post about the rescue, however, the cat’s owner appeared to claim that the firefighters didn’t want to rescue her pet at all.
‘After Owen was safely down, the firefighters refused to help us get down our cat,” Kaylee Ann Murphy said. ‘He was stuck up there and could not climb down by himself. I watched him try and he almost fell out of the tree.’
‘The firefighters left without even attempting to get the cat down. We were at the park until 1:30 a.m. in a lighting and rain storm when an arborist saved the cat in his bucket truck. The firefighters were feet away from my cat and did not even attempt to get him down when I begged for their help,’ she added.
Dailymail.com has contacted Ms. Murphy for further comment.
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