Indiana teenager climbed 35 feet to try to rescue cat stuck in tree, couldn’t get down, rescued by Indianapolis Fire Department

An Indiana 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 had to be rescued.

The 17-year-old boy was at Holliday Park on Indianapolis’ north side last weekend when he saw the cat in a tree and tried to rescue it, climbing 35 feet, according to the Indianapolis Fire Department.

The teenager, identified only as Owen, told firefighters “he was trying to do a good deed and bring the cat to safety,” according to Battalion Chief Rita Reith.

Reith said “Owen had no trouble climbing up the tree” — just with what to do then: “His positioning did not allow the same ease for getting down.”

Firefighting crews used a rope system to lower the boy safely to the ground after about two hours.

The department released video of the rescue.

The teenager was fine.

And the cat?

“The cat seemed to enjoy the commotion but made no effort to climb down the tree,” according to Reith, who later said a 21-year-old woman who owns the cat ended up hiring a company to retrieve it.

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