Dana slowed the truck to a slow roll “Very carefully. Watch me on that side.”

Alice gripped the ‘oh shit handle’ even firmer “Oh I’m watching. You have about 4 inches on this side.”

Dana eased the truck up onto the bridge and over. It was a very tight squeeze but would be even worse when they had to back over the very same bridge. She brought the old panting truck to a halt in the driveway of the residence.

"Ease out…" Alice was cut short by a huge backfiring of the truck "on the clutch." shrugging her shoulders, she continued to push the rickety door open

The brunette waved "It’s ok. Just the Fire Department." presenting a nervous smile as the residents unclenched their chests and went about their business

"Hey. How are you all doing?" a man asked, walking down the front steps

"Great." Alice answer sarcastically

"Where is the cat?" Dana asked, climbing on top of the truck to retrieve the attic ladder.

"Up there." pointing to the top of the tallest tree

"Holy shit." Dana mumbled under her breath "I thought you said it was about twenty feet?" glancing down at the scraggly ladder in her hands

"I don’t have depth perception, i just guessed." giving a crooked smile "I’m Josh by the way."

"Alice."

"Dana."

Josh stuffed his hands in his pockets and kicked the grass with his bare foot "Well I really appreciate y’all doing this. My wife wouldn’t let it go."

"I’ve never saw a cat that would starve itself. They are pretty needy little creatures." Dana replied withholding a lot of what she really wanted to say

"So as you can see." Alice said pointing towards the small ladder "We are not exactly equipped to handle this type of situation. Have you tried showing it food or something?"

"Yeah we tried that, we even tried to poke it with this here big stick." picking up a tree branch instead of a stick like he was referring to

"Oh, that didn’t work." Alice said quickly turning her head to look at Dana and mouthed "Shocker."

*************************************************

Dana proceeded to set the small ladder up against the base of the tree, she made the mistake of looking over the hill in which the tree was perched. "Al, can I talk to you for a second." walking quickly towards the truck