Tree-climber went above and beyond to retrieve parrot

On July 2, as we unloaded our parrots at our cabin in Grapeview for the long weekend, one of them (my wife’s favorite, naturally) got out of his carrier a bit prematurely and headed for the tallest tree he could see.

At Pirates Cove No. 2, across from Stretch Island in Grapeview, that was a fir tree about 150 feet tall.

We tried all those things the book says to do, and by Friday afternoon had called a tree service.

Our first climber balked at climing a 200- to 250-foot fir, but he contacted by a man named Kurt Hall who said he’d rescued everything else and offered to give this a try.

But he worried that rescuing a bird from a tree might be just a tad different than rescuing a cat.

To make a long story short, by 10:30 p.m. on Saturday we were taking our bird to an animal emergency hospital in Tacoma.

This tireless man climbed Friday night, all day Saturday and Saturday night by moonlight in 200-foot trees to save our pet.

Who’d have thought anyone could get a bird out of a tree? By hand, no less.

I want to share this mans integrity and ethics with as many people as I can and wondered how to go about getting him some notoriety.

When my wife, in total meltdown, offered to pay him his pre-aranged fee on Saturday afternoon, he was incredulous, saying, “I haven’t got your bird yet, so I won’t take your money.”

And it was a very substantial sum he was offered.

Like anyone else in a single-person commercial business in these times, he could have taken the check and bailed. But he refused to do so.

I think Kurt Hall of Pioneer Contracting is a special individual and deserves some notoriety.

BOB GRAY

Port Orchard

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