Three Santa Clara County firefighters rescued a small kitten
from a tall tree in a north Monterey Road neighborhood.
Brittany Taylor – Special to the Times
Three Santa Clara County firefighters rescued a small kitten from a tall tree in a north Monterey Road neighborhood.
Firemen Matt Hartfield, Dave Riggert and Eric Gilbrecht were called from the El Toro Fire Station about 7:30 p.m. July 29 to save a small kitten from the tree. Gilbrecht said the tree overhung two townhouses with a pathway too narrow for the fire truck, preventing the firemen from using the ladder. The resourceful rescuers acquired a ground ladder tall enough to reach high the top of the 35-foot tree. As bystanders looked on, the three firemen secured the ladder to the tree’s tallest limb, bypassing the fractured limb on which the cat precariously sat.
A local witness, who only gave her name as Debra, nicknamed the cat “Little Orange Kitty,” and fireman Gilbrecht’s ascent up the ladder as “fearless.” With the assistance of Riggert and Hartfield, Gilbrecht prompted the kitten to jump from the breaking limb onto an adjacent roof, allowing the firemen to return it to a neighbor, somewhat rattled but successfully rescued. “My heart was in my throat!” Debra said.
