For two nights recently, Nancy Bowker listened to the moanful cries of her cat, Curry. The year-old, gold-and-white female cat was stranded 70 feet up in a hard maple tree.

“I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “I called the fire department and the sheriff’s department, and they said there was nothing they could do.”

A friend suggested calling a tree trimmer, and Kane Farmer of Alexander Tree Service rescued the traumatized cat.

The tree is in a thickly forested ravine in Greenbriar subdivision in Lafayette. The sun’s rays barely penetrate the canopy near Bowker’s home on Shenandoah Court.

Farmer strapped on his climbing spikes and used a safety line to quickly reach the cat. After securing the animal, he easily rappelled down the tree.

Kenny Alexander, owner of the tree service, said Bowker was in distress when she called. He decided not to charge her, although Bowker was willing to pay.

“When I found out about all the stuff she had been through, I decided to help her out,” he said.

“We probably do two or three cat rescues a year.”

He said cats can climb with no problems, but they have difficulty getting down.

“They need to go down like they are sliding on a pole, rear end first. Their tendency is to go head-first, and they lose their balance and fall.”

He said stranded cats have been known to die in tall trees.

Bowker said she heard her cat crying on a Saturday night. She grabbed a flashlight and saw light reflecting in the cat’s eyes.

“I tried to talk her down,” Bowker said. “My vet told me that if she hadn’t come down by now, she probably wasn’t coming down.

“Something must have really scared her.”

Bowker said she is going to redouble her efforts to keep the neutered cat inside. As she spoke, Curry was sitting in the window, scratching a screen.

“We see deer back here,” she said of the rugged ravine. “Raccoons have broken into my home to eat cat food.”

Bowker also has a 16-year-old Brittany spaniel, Bridget. As she opened the front door to show the pooch, the cat again tried to get out. This time, Bowker was able to grab her.

“I’ll do my darnedest to keep her inside,” she said. “Maybe I should give her tree-climbing lessons in my front yard.”

Are there some hikes in your spring and summer plans? If so, make sure you pack your binoculars and field guide. Extra weight is frowned on when you are deciding what goes in the backpack, but I have a reason for encouraging hikers to carry binos and a book. Anyone going into the high country for several days has a good chance of seeing some interesting birds.

There is another reason to encourage backpackers to carry extra weight. Hikers that get high into the mountains can gather information on this state’s birds. Believe me, all birders aren’t hardy hikers. Many of us never get to those higher elevations if we can’t do most of it in a vehicle.

I wish that when we were backpacking with our children that I had realized what a great birding opportunity was waiting on those trails. The struggle up to Heather Pass or Honeymoon Meadows would have been easier if I had thought I might see something unusual, even important.

A couple of years ago, I was surprised to learn from a biologist with the Department of Fish and Wildlife that there are resident Clark’s nutcrackers high in the Olympics. I thought they were only resident in the Cascades. There is a year-round population in the Olympics. Someone had to discover that the birds are more than occasional winter visitors. Chances are they were hikers familiar with birds.

I recently had the opportunity to meet with a local mountaineering group. Preparing the program opened my eyes to the information this club could collect on the high elevation birds in our mountains.

All of the books and field guides show that mountain chickadees are only found in the mountains to the east. They aren’t listed for the Olympics. Why not? These are mountain chickadees and the Olympics are mountains.

During the latter part of 2004, for whatever reason, mountain chickadees were seen in many areas throughout the Puget Sound lowlands. If they were traveling on the Kitsap Peninsula, why couldn’t they be in the Olympics? Maybe they are. One experienced mountaineer saw a photograph of the bird during the meeting and stated that he had seen “that bird” in the Olympics. He saw them while hiking in the Bailey Range at about 5,000 feet.

Bird populations and their territories change. Up until the early ‘50s, the Western scrub jay only occurred in small numbers in the southwest corner of Washington. In the decades that followed, they began expanding their range northward. Now they are regularly reported on the northern tip of the Kitsap Peninsula and have nested north of Seattle.

The Anna’s hummingbird wasn’t even mentioned in the textbook, “Birds of Washington State,” that once was used by ornithological students at the University of Washington. It was published in 1953. This hummingbird is now shown as a year-round resident in Puget Sound, the southwest coast and the lower Columbia River area.

Birding is young in the Pacific Northwest. There are more discoveries to be made and some of those will be found in those mountains only the hardy reach by packing in. If you’re one of them, please add those binos and a field guide to your pack.

If you thought that outsourcing was true of just the IT industry, you need to live a dog’s life to know how not true it is.

Dog owners in Mumbai are fast discovering the comfort of a new phenomenon called “dogsourcing”.

With most dog owners finding it difficult to spend quality time with their pets, “doggie” businesses have been sniffing success bigtime in Mumbai’s suburbs.

One of the aspects of dogsourcing is professional dogwalkers.

Take the case of businessman Karamjit Singh. A Goregaon resident, Singh finds it difficult to spend time with his dog Tuffy like he once did.

“I leave early for office, so I get no time,” he rues.

In walks professional dogwalker Hemant who gives Tuffy the perfect company and that much-needed walk.

“I walk dogs for 40 to 45 minutes in a day,” says Hemant who works for Mumbai’s Royal Art Pet Shop.

One can now engage a professional to walk their dog for anything between Rs 900 to Rs 5,000 a month depending on the breed and quality of services provided.

You can even get your pet groomed in the comfort of your home for Rs 1,000 per sitting. And that’s cheap considering high-end pet care is much more expensive (Rs 10,000-Rs 25,000 per sitting).

So if you don’t mind the money, it’s most certainly a walk on the finer side for your pet

A woman who is six months pregnant and her two young sons escaped injury when a fire broke out yesterday in their South Amboy home, officials said.

The family cat was saved using cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.

The fire struck the three-story South Pine Avenue house shortly after 5:30 p.m., city Fire Marshal Ed Szatkowski said.

The mother, whose name and age were not immediately available, was taken to a hospital to be checked out because she is pregnant, the fire marshal said.

Her children, an 11-year-old and his younger brother whose age was not available, were not injured, Szatkowski said. Neither child’s name was released.

The investigation into the fire is continuing, but officials said they suspect it may have been caused by an electrical problem.

Family members told authorities the older brother was called out of his room by his mother, and when he returned, the room was filled with smoke, the fire marshal said.

The mother tried to use a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze, but the equipment did not work. At that time, the family fled the apartment.

Two South Amboy firefighters rescued Oliver, the family’s calico cat, according to Szatkowski. Firefighter Michael Wilday performed CPR, and oxygen was administered. Wilday was assisted by firefighter Chris Norek.

It took some 70 firefighters about 30 minutes to put out the fire, Szatkowski added. The blaze gutted the second floor, and the first and third floors sustained extensive water and smoke damage.

No one besides the mother and her sons was in the house when the fire broke out, Szatkowski said. The family is staying with relatives.

Jango, a Belgian Malinois, and Rocky, a German shepherd, have stood up to armed criminals for years with no protection.

Until now.

A ninth-grader from Shaler has raised $5,000 to purchase bulletproof vests for the two pooches, as well as for two other trained dogs that work for the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office.

“This is important. If a police dog is shot, it’s like a police officer losing a partner,” said Amanda Platt, 15, who attends Shaler Area Intermediate School.

Amanda began raising money three years ago. She has helped buy $825 vests for six police dogs, including dogs in Ross and Franklin Park. The sheriff’s dogs received their vests last month.

“She is a very determined young lady who cares a lot about dogs. We are very grateful,” said Acting Sheriff William Mullen, who presented Amanda with a plaque Wednesday. “We struggle with the budget, so this is a great help.”

Amanda isn’t finished. She wants to buy vests for the six Allegheny County Police dogs.

She was inspired to raise money for the vests when she read “Chicken Soup for the Pre-Teen Soul,” a book of stories about youths that included an account of how a California girl, Stephanie Taylor, raised money for police dog vests.

“I have had a dog every year of my life, so I liked this girl’s idea,” Amanda said.

Her mother, Donna Platt, said Amanda has a soft spot for dogs.

“She always cried when dogs were hurt in movies. She still does,” Donna Platt said.

To raise the money, Amanda asked classmates for small contributions and contacted businesses with fliers and letters. She sometimes was surprised by generous replies. Duquesne Light Co., for example, donated $1,000.

“We expected maybe a couple hundred dollars,” Amanda said.

Bob Chambers, a K-9 police officer with the sheriff’s office, said he’s thrilled to have the vests.

“My dogs go into felony arrest warrants with no protection. People often have all kinds of weapons in these situations,” Chambers said.

None of the sheriff’s dogs has been killed in the line of duty. But in September, a Polk County Sheriff’s deputy and his canine partner were killed.

“These dogs are my best friends. They are like my children,” Chambers said.

A little aquatic bird without name has piqued the A. MUSTAFFA BABJEE, so he has turned two years of and recording into a documentary for nature lovers.

WHAT partly inspired me to devote two years of study on a little aquatic bird was that it had no Malay name.

My journey took me to villages close to habitats where wild aquatic birds could be found and I learnt from the villagers the local name of this bird — Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis).

The majority of the villagers said it is the chick, or young one of the “Belibis” or Whistling Teal (Dendrocynia javanica).

The rest said they have not seen or noticed the Little Grebe. One of the reasons that they thought the Grebe is the progeny of the Belibis is because these two totally unrelated species share the same habitat and the Little Grebe (25cm) is almost half the size of the Belibis (41cm).

The other reason is probably due to my theory that the Grebe is a recent introduction to peninsular Malaysia, migrating from Bengal east and southwards in the early 20th century. Abandoned tin mines exposed to the forces of nature became suitable habitats to attract the Little Grebe and a number of other species.

The Grebes, as a group, are very unique as they have no close relatives that share their characteristics. The ancestors of the Grebes diverged from the main stream of bird evolution at least more than 55 million years ago.

At a distance, the Little Grebe appears like a little duck but on closer examination, it has a pointed bill, is almost tailless and does not have webbed feet like ducks.

Each toe has an independent leaf-like paddle.

The Little Grebe is mostly seen singly or in pairs in former mining pools, especially in the Klang Valley, Paya Indah Wetlands and Batang Berjuntai in Selangor, Malim Nawar and Kinta Valley in Perak and also in shallow artificial lakes like Timah Tasoh in Perlis. It has not been seen east of the central range of the peninsula or in Sabah and Sarawak.

This little aquatic bird is an excellent swimmer and diver. In fact, it dives some 600 to 1,000 times a day in search of food or plant materials for nest-building. It feeds mainly on aquatic insects and larvae, fish and frogs.

The relationships of mature pairs are exemplary as they share all the chores of house-keeping and parental care of the young till they fledge. Sex equality was there 55 million years ago.

I have proposed a Malay name for this bird — “Taktik” — which is an abbreviation of bukan itik (not a duck).

And because their life-cycle is so interesting, my colleague Dr Yusoff Noor, my son Shamyl and yours truly have made a 30-minute documentary of this bird entitled “The Little Diver”, which we hope will be shown on TV one day.

Two years of observation and recording compressed into 30 minutes should be exciting for nature lovers.

Back to the wildlife IN the 1990s, Dr A. Mustaffa Babjee contributed articles on fauna and flora with photo illustrations to the Environment column of the New Straits Times Group. His hiatus from writing is not because he had abandoned his pursuit and passion for nature conservation. On the contrary, he is even more active studying and recording our depleting wildlife on digital video to produce a series of documentaries on the country’s rich biodiversity. Having scaled down his corporate activities, he has more time now to devote to his serious hobby of nature watching.

“At the moment, I am recording the free living wildlife in their natural habitats or man-made ones that have become habitats by primary succession, viz former mining pools, abandoned fish ponds.

“At the rate natural habitats are being destroyed, I fear it would become more and more difficult to encounter wildlife that may appear relatively common today.

“In today’s world, the audio-visual media has the greatest impact on the masses, especially through the TV and the Internet. My documentary will be natural with minimum special effects and unnatural sounds,” says Mustaffa.

With his friend Dr Yusoff Noor, another nature lover, they roam the rural and wild places in Malaysia — wetlands, rivers, hills and islands — to watch and record the fascinating lives of wild birds, insects, plants and animals.

“If you don’t have the patience and the passion, it would be quite impossible to document the life-cycle of a bird or any wildlife. To get one minute of acceptable video footage could mean eight hours of waiting or even five to eight different visits to the location,” says Mustaffa.

“For example, we have been watching the behaviour of Grebes for two years now and we still do not know all their secrets. Often, the subjects disappear from the location due to human intrusion.” On the future of our environment, Mustaffa says: “We have no political leaders who are passionate about conservation.

We also lack public officials who care for the environment.

Most of them equate conservation to anti-development.

“They won’t and some cannot comprehend the economic values and benefits that conservation can contribute to the entire nation beyond the five years of political tenure.

“The sad thing is that by the time this county realised and recognised the economic and social values of conservation, there will be little left to conserve and a big bill for the future generation to foot for a livable environment.”