14 DAY TRIAL // Just the other day, firefighters in India's Baleswar District were called in to rescue a cat stuck high up in a tree. Little did they know that the cat they were expected to save was no ordinary pet feline, but a full-grown leopard.
The incident occurred in the village of Saraswatipur. Since leopards stuck in trees are not what some would call a common sight, hundreds gathered to watch the rescue operation.
How the leopard ended up stuck in a tree
The big cat, pictured below, climbed the tree after, while it was hanging around a chicken shed in the village of Saraswatipur in India's eastern Baleswar District, a farmer saw it, screamed to raise the alarm and spooked it.
Having made it all the way up to the top of the tree, the feline found a comfortable spot and refused to return to the ground. Meanwhile, folks gathered by the hundreds hoping to catch a glimpse of it.
Officials with the Wildlife Trust of India, together with local firefighters, first considered tranquilizing the feline and catching it when, being asleep, it would fall out of the tree.
Forcing the predator to jump off the branch it was holding on to was also proposed. However, what with hundreds of people circling the tree, it was eventually agreed that leaving the leopard be was the smartest thing to do.
Come nightfall, the big cat rescued itself
When night came, the guys and gals gathered around the tree left and headed home to their beds to get some much needed sleep. Officials, however, stayed behind to keep watch over the leopard.
At one point, the feline figured out that it no longer had anything to worry about and descended the tree unaided. It wasn't a very smooth ride back to the ground, but the big cat made it through unscathed.
“When it started to get dark, people were a bit more nervous and drifted off and when there were only officials left, the leopard ran down the tree and dashed off,” said a police officer, as cited by Mirror.
Once out of the tree, the leopard did not hesitate to run back into the jungle. All in all, the cat spent about 14 hours above the ground, balanced on whatever sturdy branches it managed to find. .
