The Beck Saga Continues

Remember the Beck’s?

I’m talking about Larry and Diana Beck from Bradford. Diana and Ginger have been friends since high school. The Beck’s have been our friends most of our adult lives.

Let me refresh your memory. I’ve written about them calling the police and reporting a car theft, to find out later they had simply forgotten where they had parked the night before.

I’ve also written about Larry falling asleep with a medicine bottle in his hand, and an unknown citizen called 911 thinking he was dead.

The saga continues . . .

The Beck’s recently adopted a stray kitten that wandered on their property. Diana started feeding the purring friend, and the rest is history.

Larry really isn’t an animal over, but he allowed the critter to stay around outside to chase away unwanted critters.

This episode starts like this: The kitten is still in its playful mode, and started climbing a tree outside their patio. The Beck’s thought this was normal and cute routine that there newfound guest was performing.

That is until it climbed to the top of the tree, approximately 40 feet in the air. Plus, a neighboring hawk started swirling the tree for what looked like a kitten treat.

“Larry, we can’t let the kitten die!” Diana proclaimed. “You have to do something.”

So Larry thought long and hard, and decided the only way he could get the kitten down from 40 feet, was to rent a “cherry picker”. Cherry pickers are a type of aerial work platform that can be used in a number of different tasks that require machinery to reach up high. They are often used to service telephone poles, paint or clean buildings, hang Christmas decorations, or affix banners. I’m sure they were never intended for kitten removal.

A forty-five foot cherry picker usually rents for $120 per four hours intervals. Diana thought this was too much, so she told the rental company that they needed the equipment to rescue their helpless kitten, while crying on the telephone. The softhearted owner then offered them $60 per hour for two hours.

“Thank you,” Diana sobbed.
Larry soon came home with the 45-foot contraption, and started the rescue. When he reached the correct height, the kitten was still out of his grasp. As he leaned and tried to grab the little fury creature, it thought that Larry was playing and began to use it paws for a high-five signal. This went on for several minutes, all the while the nearby hawk kept circling over-head. In his last resort attempt, Larry grabbed the nearby branch, pulled it forward, and put his death move on the cat’s neck. Finally, the stray was in the “picker”. Larry had saved the day.

This week’s bottom line: We’ve been told if the kitten returns to the tree, Larry has a confirmation with the hawk to proceed with caution.