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OPPD couldn't do it. Firefighters couldn't do it. Tree trimming companies couldn't do it. A 14-year-old girl said she could, but was foiled by her mother.
In the end, the home improvement guy did it.
Jesse Ott, the proprietor of a home improvement firm, drove from Ashland, Neb., Friday night so he could rescue Taz, the previously tree-bound tuxedo cat.
So instead of spending another cold night huddled in the hole of a tree, Taz was safe at home, munching cat food and lapping up water this morning.
"I was just so happy to see the kitty," said Joni Cisney, who works at an animal rescue organization and had heard about Taz from a story in Friday's World-Herald.
According to Cisney, the rescue happened this way:
Ott, the owner of Jesse's Home Improvement, shinnied up the tree, reached into the hole and grabbed Taz by the scruff of her neck, placed her inside the baited cat trap, and lowered the cage to the welcoming arms of Charles Givens, her owner. By then, it was around 10:20 p.m.
"I was really surprised and pleased that he did that," Givens said. He said Taz - when she wasn't eating - was walking around and playing with her sisters.
Earlier, things looked less promising.
Tree-trimming companies, the Omaha Public Power District, an animal rescue organization and the Nebraska Humane Society had all tried to coax the cat from her 50-foot perch near 44th and Davenport Streets.
"I'm glad someone's willing to help get her out," Givens said, and added that he wouldn't be able to afford such assistance.
The homeowner, who declined to give his name, said people had called the Fire Department and the Humane Society multiple times before neighbor Celena Warner, 14, got stuck Thursday in the tree while trying to reach Taz.
They told him the cat would leave the tree on her own. When two animal control officers showed up yesterday, he aired his grievances.
The officers told volunteers that city law mandates that they take the cat - and charge the owner to get her back - and tensions increased.
The owner of the home asked the officers to leave.
Yet throughout the ordeal, Cisney never gave up on Taz.
"This will work," she said Friday afternoon during heavy rain.
And it did.
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