Why I Called the Fire Department to Get A Bird Out of My Tree

This is a true story. It was a sunny summer afternoon in the 1980's when I heard an unusual chirping coming from my backyard. I stepped out onto the deck and could hear more clearly flapping and a bird screaming out in distress. I looked up into a near-by tree and could see a bird hanging upside down with a string caught around its leg and around a branch in the tree. The bird kept flapping and squawking, trying to get itself up on a branch. Not being fond of birds, I thought, you deserve this. Then I pictured this bird dying from lack of food and water and later nothing but a skeleton hanging from this string. I couldn't let that happen.

The bird was too high for me to reach then I thought, firemen rescue cats out of trees all the time, I would just call the fire department. I went into the house, looked up the number for the fire department and gave them a call. A fireman answered. I said, "I need you to come to my house and get a bird out of my tree". Can you just think what this fireman was thinking? He politely told me the fire department could not help me. I asked, "Why not, you rescue cats from trees all the time." It is important to let you know, I had not told this fireman about the bird being caught with the string, I was just asking for their help in getting this bird out of my tree. Finally the fireman told me he would need to speak with the Captain. Instead, he put the Captain on the phone. I could hear laughter in the background and could not understand what was so funny.

Again, I told the Captain I needed their assistance in getting a bird out of my tree. He told me birds live in trees and he could not help me. Duh....then I remember I had not fully explained the situation about the bird being trapped. After filling him in on the whole story and more persuasion, he agreed to send a fireman to my house. He told me if it rained I would have to come to the station and wash the fire truck.

It wasn't long before a big fire truck pulled up in front of my house. All the kids in the neighborhood came running to see what was going on. Of course the tree was in my backyard, therefore the ladder on the truck would not reach that far. The fireman assessed the situation and grabbed hold of the trunk of the tree and climbed it without any assistance. When he reached the bird, he pulled out a knife and cut the string and off flew the bird. Well, for sometime I was known as the lady who called the fire department for help in getting a bird out of her tree.