Discovery Press Web United States

• Print

(Seattle, WA.) - Every day in western Washington State, wily felines scale massive trees, only to find themselves helplessly stranded hundreds of feet off the ground.  Lucky for them, expert tree climbers and kitty communication experts Shaun Sears and Tom Otto are prepared to do whatever it takes to rescue these panicked pets and reunite them with their owners. The duo runs the non-profit organization, Canopy Cat Rescue, a highly skilled, two-man operation adept at climbing the region's notoriously tall timber. Over the past two years, they have scaled trees as tall as 15 stories high while bringing nearly 500 kitties back to the loving arms of their worried humans. Viewers will get an up-close look at the moments when these frightened felines meet their knight in shining armor in the all-new series, TREETOP CAT RESCUE debuting Saturday May 30 with a special double episode premiere at 9:00PM and 9:30PM on Animal Planet.  

Shaun and Tom, brothers-in-law and certified arborists, are always on call; taking calls around the clock from petrified pet owners who discovered their beloved cat has been chased, spooked, or simply wandered up a tree. After their expert evaluation of the rescue site, Tom and Shaun strap on their harnesses and begin their ascent while the clock ticks away.  On their way up, they face myriad hazards; ranging from buzzing beehives, to dead branches to unpredictable weather in order reach their target.

That's when the biggest challenge of the rescue begins - coaxing a distressed and helpless feline into their arms from heights as high as 150 feet off the ground.  Each cat is different and no two rescues are the same.  Tom and Shaun must channel their inner kitty to persuade the frightened feline out of potentially climbing higher.  With patience and a little "meow-meow talk", Tom and Shaun lure the cat to safety before descending the tree and reuniting them with their thankful owners. 

In a special premiere event, TREETOP CAT RESCUE kicks off with a double episode stack at 9:00 and 9:30 PM. In episode 1, Shaun heads out for a solo night mission to rescue Spaz, who's been missing for three weeks. Later in the episode they encounter a stray cat rescue that might prove more challenging than they thought.  Later, in episode 2, the crew is on scene in Maple Valley helping one owner investigate if the animal trapped in his tree is in fact his beloved missing cat. Finally, the guys head west to Bremerton, WA to battle a brittle tree and less than ideal nighttime conditions to reach one cat that doesn't seem to want to be rescued.

TREETOP CAT RESCUE is produced for Animal Plant by Pilgrim Studios. For Pilgrim Studios, Craig Piligian and Scott Popjes are executive producers. For Animal Planet, Keith Hoffman is executive producer, and Sarah Russell is associate producer. The series was developed by Animal Planet's Kurt Tondorf and Karl Rodulfo. Rick Holzman is General Manager and Marjorie Kaplan is Group President.

ABOUT ANIMAL PLANET

Animal Planet, a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. Animal Planet consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 94 million homes in the US; online assets www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; Animal Planet L!VE, the go-to digital destination for round-the-clock, unfiltered access to the animal kingdom; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service, and merchandising extensions.

ABOUT PILGRIM STUDIOS

Craig Piligian's Pilgrim Studios produces a wide variety of unscripted and scripted programming for television, including hit series Fast N' Loud, Misfit Garage and Street Outlaws for Discovery; Ghost Hunters for Syfy; The Ultimate Fighter for FOX Sports 1; Swamp Pawn for CMT; Welcome to Sweetie Pie's and Raising Whitley for OWN; David Tutera's CELEBrations for WEtv; Wicked Tuna and Wicked Tuna: North vs. South for National Geographic Channel; Amazing America with Sarah Palin and Saving Private K-9 for Sportsman Channel; Bring It! for Lifetime; Somebody's Gotta Do It with Mike Rowe for CNN; and My Big Fat Fabulous Life for TLC, recently renewed for season two. The company also produced the breakout movie Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives for Discovery's 2013 Shark Week, as well as the movie Shark of Darkness: Wrath of Submarine and the special Megalodon: The New Evidence for the channel's Shark Week 2014. In the scripted realm, Pilgrim is currently in production on the series Recovery Road for ABC Family. The company's original movies for Lifetime include Amanda Knox: Murder On Trial In Italy; Abducted: The Carlina White Story, which earned a 2012 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing In A Motion Picture; and the crime thriller Stalkers.