A scrappy and territorial cat is stubbornly living in the treetops of Central Park despite numerous rescue attempts to bring him back down to earth.
The orange cutie — nicknamed by do-gooders as “Mr. Kitty” — is now living in his third tree since Monday, which he claimed when he stubbornly clambered up the bark just after activists brought him down from his prior abode.
“We tried to capture between here and that pine, but the cat ran up the pine!” said JP Borum, the self-described “park nerd” who rescued Mei Mei the parakeet from the very same greenspace in the fall.
“This cat was not gonna be captured. This cat is very domestic, it hisses and doesn’t want to be touched. Definitely domestic, not semi-feral, not feral.”
Wildlife lovers first noticed Mr Kitty hanging in the foliage Monday and raised alarms that he may be stuck or injured.
It soon became clear that the orange beast was simply house hunting and had no intentions of coming down.
Borum, 62, and other good Samaritans called the FDNY, the Parks Department and the Central Park Conservancy for help — but only the conservancy answered the call.
FDNY allegedly refused to respond, while the Parks Department never picked up the phone. Neither agency responded to requests for comment.
Instead, a responder from the conservancy’s tree care team rushed to the scene, said Borum.
“They rigged up something and the woman who runs the tree care team just climbed up that tree. She repelled up, and then she repelled down [with the cat],” recalled Borum.
But the stealthy critter escaped their grasp and went up another tree.
According to the Central Park Conservancy, Mr. Kitty managed to bolt for freedom multiple times over the past 24 hours despite their rangers’ and in-park staffs’ best attempts.
Unfortunately for Mr. Kitty, the treetops in that neck of the woods are not a safe place to settle down.
Romeo and Juliet, the park’s famous coyote couple, regularly saunter through the area in the middle of the night, and the spot is a known hunting ground for hawks.
“Hawks don’t normally go for cats, but there are now four hawk nests with females sitting on eggs … so the male is hunting for two. And that means they might get something bigger than usual, larger, like a cat,” said Borum.
“Three hours ago, one was circling literally right here. He came over and was literally overhead doing tight circles.”
Much like her rescue mission for Mei Mei, Borum has been visiting Mr. Kitty daily to check on his safety, wave sticks at passing predators and try to bribe him down with food.
So far, no owner has come forward to claim the feline.
“The Conservancy’s Rangers are aware of the situation and are closely monitoring the cat’s safety. We’ve notified our partners at FDNY and will be on-site to assist with any response efforts as needed,” a Spokesperson for the Central Park Conservancy said.
