Having previously arranged to meet my Significant Other (Searching4Fun) for lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant, I arrived at the shopping center about twenty minutes early. Earlier this morning, I was not really even going to make the trip because of the expense related to it. When she mentioned Chinese Food and meeting me instead of me picking her up, I was all for it. We arranged to meet at 12:30, and I arrived at about 12:10.

We never did get to eat lunch.

This shopping center doesn't have a geocache, and is one of the few that doesn't in this area. So, we had already looked for a suitable location here to place a cache but never found one that wasn't prone to disappearing due to Muggles. But, as I was turning into the shopping center, I noticed a planter that I had never noticed before.

This planter has three or four bushes growing in it, and it just may be a suitable place for a cache. We've probably checked it before, though, so I doubt it, but with twenty minutes to kill I decided to take another look and check the distances to the nearby caches.

I parked about one hundred feet from the planter to be able to park in shade. The planter is on the opposite side of the parking lot from the actual shopping center and is very near the main drag in this area, US Hwy 31. I walked over to the planter, and there is one section of it that has a door recessed into the top of the planter. Good Possibilities there for a cache, if the doors can be opened. The next thing in the planter is a good-sized bush. Generally, I'm not into placing caches under bushes, because it's just too easy to do that. I like to think about the place and put down a cache that is attached in some way to something and has a pretty good chance of not getting wet.

Next to the bush is an electrical connection and a hole lined with steel. I estimate the hole to be around twelve inches across. This looks promising, but I need to see how deep the hole is. Part of the planter borders a nice grassy area and part of it borders the parking lot access road. I was in the grass, and couldn't see into the hole. A cursory glance at the remainder of the planter... more bushes. The planter is about three and a half feet tall and it's made of concrete. It is hard to see into the hole from my side of the planter, so I walk around to the other side and take a glance into the hole.

I glance in again. "What are you doing in there?"

The hole looks to be about six feet deep and contains a small cat.

"Hmm, how do you get out of there?" For safety, I move away from the hole back to the grass section. I wonder if the cat can get out of that hole.

Thinking about what I saw, the first thing that came to mind was that the hole is not a good location for a geocache.

The second thing that came to mind was "I don't think the cat can climb out of there".

The hole is actually a pipe and the pipe is made of steel and it has lots of rust on the inside. An inch or so sticks above the planter, and it doesn't take a genius to tell me that, with the electrical connections nearby, this is the original shopping center sign location.

The hole would have to go below ground level for stability. There would probably not be any other way out of the hole except through the top of the planter. Still, I need to be certain of that before I raise any alarms about the cat.

I move back around to the other side of the Planter and look into the hole again.

Cat is gone. Well, that's a good thing, so I examine the hole for his escape route and don't see any other way out of the hole. He didn't come out of the hole, so, where is he?

It was at this point that I noticed another hole. There's a smaller pipe embedded in the big pipe that goes much deeper into the ground. There's so much shading there that I really can't see into the hole, but I can, if I concentrate, see the cat's eyes looking back up at me from inside the smaller pipe. Not good. I apparently alarmed the cat, it tried to flee, and only had one direction to go. Down.

I estimate this smaller pipe at five inches in diameter, and the cat may even be stuck in the pipe and can't move. This is bad. I now know the cat cannot escape, and I know that the cat is pretty much stuck.

Silently I wonder to myself if someone else would ever discover the cat if I walked away. No, it's not real likely. There's no reason to stop here... there's no reason to be here for anyone. No good place to park, no place to shop within 200 feet or more; An insignificant planter in an insignificant place containing a few bushes... and a cat. If I walk away the cat will surely die. Well, maybe. Cats are very good climbers, when they have something to sink their claws into. I don't think the insides of this steel pipe are exactly conducive to climbing out, even with the rust.

For all I know the cat could have fallen into this hole, could have been put into this hole, could live in this hole.

From what I remember seeing the cat looked healthy enough, so it probably didn't get put into the hole by some ill-intentioned person. Then again, it's possible for it to land fairly softly too. If the intent was to kill the cat, why put it here?

I will never know how the cat got here, but I know that it will not survive if left here. It may be months, years, before anyone ever looks in this hole. I won't be able to come back to this shopping center without thinking about the cat. It will haunt me for the rest of my life. I have to do something. But. What?

I walk back to the truck, thinking "Well, if I'm not here, the cat may relax and climb out and run away. If it can. But I really don't see how. Maybe I have something in the truck the cat can use as a ladder to climb out with". I've already decided that a board is necessary for that, but I don't have one. I don't have anything, really. I have to get someone's attention or call someone. But... is it the Fire Department or whom? I live in Columbiana and don't know how they do things in Pelham, where I and the cat are located.

Well, Searching4Fun works in Pelham, maybe she knows who to call. So I called her. She doesn't answer her desk phone or her cell phone. Hmm, 12:25, she should be arriving soon, but if she had left she would have her cell phone, not that she always answers when I call. Oh Well, maybe a police car will come by. So, I walk back to the hole, hoping the cat has left. No such luck.

Even if it could have gotten out of the Big Hole, I doubt it can barely move in the Small Pipe in the Big Hole and it was right where I left it, though it is hard to see. Great. If I finally get someone here will they be able to see it or assume I'm just a nut case and haul me off to jail? Oh well, I'll just have to chance it. Just then the phone rings and it's Searching4Fun. "Sorry, I'm just now leaving work." "That's okay, but I have a small problem here and need some help".

I filled her in on what I have found and how. She believes the people to call are the Fire Department. So I hang up with her and call Information. Get the number for the Pelham Fire Department. Now, this is not an emergency, and I know better than to call 911. They will take you to jail for using the emergency number for a non-emergency, or at least give you ticket. Eventually, after listening to the recorded list of people I could connect to at the Fire Department, I connect to the Watch Commander and get his / her voice mail. I leave a detailed message and a contact number. As of today I'm still waiting for a call back.

I called Searching4Fun back. She told me to call the Shelby County Humane Society and see if they can help. Hung up and called information and got connected to the Humane Society. Another voice recording. This time the recording lists a whole series of numbers for different places to call for different cities. I jot down the number for Pelham, hang up and call it. Busy Signal. Repeated phone calls for 10 minutes result in a busy signal.

Searching4Fun arrives and finds me at the planter. She looks in the hole, turns to me and says "Where's the cat?" "In the smaller pipe. It's hard to see and it is stuck". She strains to see the cat and I know what she's thinking... he's finally lost it. But, then she finally sees cat eyes staring back. Poor Kitty. "We need to get it some water," she says "while you keep calling".

The cat and some water in that small pipe is probably not going to work, but I let it go 'cause it just might help the cat. Finally, after calling the last number provided, I tell her that I get nothing but a busy signal. By now she has found an old water bottle (no water) and has cut the bottom off, and is outfitting it with fishing line to lower it to the kitten. I have brought along a warm bottle of fresh water. So, we work on getting the water to the kitty. Not going to happen. Now there is a angry wet cat in the pipe.

We decide to call the Pelham Police Department. I call 411 for directory assistance and they patch me through to the Police Department... finally, a human answers a phone!

Give them my name, location, and what I have found. They will send a car and I need to stay here. Okay, I'll stay here. It is now 12:50 and I really need to get Searching4Fun and myself some lunch, but here I will stay, because even if they arrive and find the hole, they probably can't see the cat.

Meanwhile, Searching4Fun has gone back to the car and comes back with a pair of sweat pants. She thinks that if we can get it down there the cat could climb out.

Makes sense to me, but the water thing didn't work out. She tears the sweat pants to make them as long as possible, secures a tie-down to it and starts trying to work out how to get it down to the cat. Eventually, by tieing some fishing line to the tie-down strap, we have enough distance, but the cat's not even trying to get out.

Drop the fishing line and everything falls in the hole. Now the cat is completely covered. This is an even worse thing; now nobody will see it.

Searching4Fun returns to her car and comes back with a hiking pole that actually belongs to cacher Martin from Franklin. We found it at a cache back in May and we're waiting till he makes the trip over from Franklin GA to pick it up. Hope he doesn't mind, but we were able to get the newly made rope ladder out of the hole with it. Certainly not useful for much else in this case.

Five minutes later the police arrive. He comes over, says "Where's the cat?" "Well, it's in the hole here". He looks in. "I don't see a cat". Yeah, I know. look in the small pipe. "Oh!"

He starts the investigative work that I have already carried out, probably thinking to himself, "there must be a way out of this pipe", and probably has his brain telling him the same things mine has told me... cat is stuck or it would run, there is no other way out of the hole, but he goes through the motions anyway.

When he gets back he has his radio in hand and is telling whoever that the Catch Pole is necessary and to send the Fire Department out here. He puts the radio back on his belt.

It was then that I was asked 'the question', the one I have dreaded. "How is it that you even decided to look in this hole when there's no reason for you to be at this planter?"

"Well, see, I am a geocacher... There is no geocache in this shopping center and there's plenty of room to put a geocache here, so I was scouting the area to see if there was a good place to put a geocache."

His eyes glaze over. He has no idea what I am talking about. He is probably thinking that I put the cat in the hole and now have remorse about it or something.

As a geocacher, I've had plenty of opportunites to explain to the police about my activities and usually I have a geocache that I can show them as proof. Not this time. There's no cache here, just me and my GPS. Slowly, I pull my GPS out of my pocket to show him. Very Slowly.

Searching4Fun comes to my rescue. "We were going to have lunch over at the Chinese restaurant, and he does this all the time when he's early. He loves to place Geocaches. You should check it out, G E O C A C H I N G . C O M". Then it dawns on him. That's the treasure hunt game with electronics right? "Right". Okay.

Whew, disaster averted. Back to the business at hand.

"A fire truck should be here soon and I hope they have the Catch Pole with them or it will be a useless trip" he says. I show him the GPS and the nearby geocaches and we talk generally about the game, and time passes slowly until the fire truck arrives and out come three or four firemen.

They come over and look in the hole and say "Where's the cat?" In the small pipe, again. They look closer. "We can't get that out of there without the Catch Pole".

Yeah, that's pretty obvious, but do they have anything that will help? No, not really. They get on the radio, make a call to someone and tell them to bring the Catch Pole.

Once we all decide that there's nothing we can do but wait a fireman asks me 'the question'. "Why were you here looking in this hole?" "I'm a Geocacher and I was looking in the hole to see if there was a good place to put a cache." The fireman looks at me like I am insane and the policeman explains it too. That puts the fireman at ease. Apparently if the cop has heard of it and I am not in cuffs then it must be semi-normal, I guess. "Dang lucky for the cat that you looked in this hole". "Only if we can find a way to get the cat out". "Oh, we can get it out with the Catch Pole.

I've seen the Catch Pole in action one time before, so I know what it is. This is a rather long pole with an even longer piece of rope running through it secured to the end of the pole, and the structure is formed in such a way as to make a noose out of the rope. You can stand away from the animal, get its head in the catch rope and then pull the rope to tighten it up. Not very humane sounding, but it is the best way of capturing a hostile animal, and the safest for everyone involved.

When I last saw a Catch Pole it was being used on a Ferocious and Wild Cat at Searching4Fun's house, in her garage. This was shortly after said cat had bitten me and I really would have been quite happy to see the cat's head pop off. The cat was so ferocious that they used two catch poles on it and suspended it between them so it would not be able to attack anyone else. I learned during this episode that, generally speaking, cats do not get rabies, and was quite happy to learn that. That cat did not have rabies, but I was kinda unhappy to hear that there's really only one way to know for sure, particularly as wild as that cat was acting. It was unsuitable for adoption and was put to sleep.

Anyway, we're waiting on the pole and more and more policemen show up and I tell them, pretty much one at a time, why I was looking into this hole. Finally one of them says "You should keep the cat and name it 'Geo'". I don't want the cat but I don't want it to suffer either. "Well, you are going to have to place a geocache here anyway and name it 'The Cat Rescue Cache'".

Finally, the first policeman walks over to me and says "You are probably wondering why there are so many of us here". Six policeman are there by then. Several vehicles. Numerous firemen. He says "This is a great change of pace for us, and it's a lot more pleasant than what we normally have to do every day". "Yeah, I can see that this is more pleasant. You guys at every precinct around do a great job for us, and we really do appreciate it."

We talk some more, but basically everything that needs to be said has been said.

Now I know why there are so many city workers here. They want to have some small part in rescuing the life of a little cat. Something to talk about that's pleasant for a change. When the wife says, "How was work?" they can say with a smile, "It was great". I now hope more arrive, including the one with the Catch Pole. We Have To Save The Cat.

Searching4Fun has run out of time. She has to get back to work. The person mostly responsible for rescuing this particular cat will not even be here to see it rescued. Too bad too, because I would still be trying to figure out who to call if she was not here. I promise I'll call her when they get it out and provide a full report.

Shortly after she leaves, the Catch Pole arrives. But, the Catch Pole is not long enough. See, these poles are designed to protect both person and animal, and six feet of length is usually enough. We estimate the cat at nine feet deep.

The hole is too small for a human, even the top half of a small human, and it's too deep to put an arm into the hole holding the pole, even all the way up to the shoulder. Additionally, the pole has a lambskin cover over the mechanism that is just too bulky to be able to see around. We're not even certain it will fit into the small pipe with the lambskin cover on it.

They take the pole over to a supervisor person and tell him the problem. He pulls out a knife, opens it, grabs the pole and proceeds to cut the lambskin off the pole. Effectively, he is ruining this pole. All for a small cat trapped in a hole.

Meanwhile, they have determined that they are going to need to clear some stuff from around the small pipe opening for this to work out. Firemen bring out a sharp pole usually used for prying the doors off of vehicles to remove crash victims.

They use this to cut some of the electrical wires down in the bottom of the big hole so that they don't interfere with the rescue. If you look in the hole today you'll see the wires at the bottom. No reason to take it out, just needs to be out of the way.

Repair work to the Catch Pole is now complete. The contortionist moves required to extract the cat go to the most physically fit, and smallest, person there... a police officer with long arms. A second policeman has a huge flashlight that he will try to shine into the hole around the first officer for him to be able see the cat. A third person will hold the first policeman's upper body, so he won't have to support himself while leaning down into the hole to grab the cat.

This complex rescue ballet goes off without a hitch, and suddenly there is the cat.

This is not a small cat, it is a kitten. Probably not much more than six months old. Scrawny looking and still has its kitten teeth even, which are barred. I imagine the poor thing was scared to death, though, so I'm not surprised to be seeing teeth.

It's soaking wet as well, thanks to the water we tried to give it, but at least that kept it cooler in the confined space. It's just a plain old kitten, nothing remarkable about it. Everyone is smiling. The kitten meows.

They resolve to take it to a nearby animal hospital and have it checked by the vet. Hopefully, they will be able to find the owner of the cat. People disperse, vehicles leave to go on to the next job.

It's strange how one event will trigger another, which triggers another. I really didn't want to drive to Pelham, but I did. I might not have arrived early, but I did. I might not have wanted to check for a place to put a cache, but I did. I could have ignored the hole, but I didn't. I could have given up trying to contact someone, but I didn't. A small insignificant life was saved and everyone on site participated in some way. All because of geocaching.

We often say "Well, I would never have seen this or that without geocaching". So, here is a place, unremarkable in every way, that I would never have visited except to place a cache.

All that remains on site are the police. They're talking as I walk back to the truck. Yeah, they're right. I have to place a cache. So I grab the cache kit and start rummaging through. I have a film canister and that will work. And, under the watchful eyes of the police, I walk back to the planter, find a good hiding place, under the bush next to the hole, and mix the container in with some pine straw. I pull the GPS back out of my pocket and snap a reading. Eight foot accuracy, less than 2 feet away. Pretty good for a snap reading. I walk off and track it back. I don't think anyone will have trouble finding this planter, but you never know. Coords are dead on within four feet of the cache. That's close enough for geocaching.

I walk back to the truck, a policeman gives me a thumbs up, I smile. This is the first time I've planted a cache with the muggles watching me do it. I'm pretty sure they won't bother it though. It's a special place now, for all concerned.