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Norfolk firefighters rescue man stuck in tree trying to rescue cat

"It was a little embarrassing. I definitely feel like I should have made it back down the tree I got up," said Petersen.

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - Firefighters have rescued a man in Ghent after he got stuck in a tree while trying to retrieve a cat.

The man, Jeremy Petersen, was trying to rescue his girlfriend's cat, Ponyboy, who was perched on a limb in Norfolk.

“They were hanging from different areas, and I kept hearing the trees snap a little bit,” said Nichole Ashikis, Ponyboy's owner. "I think she must have chased a squirrel up that tree."

Petersen, who is used to getting his hands dirty fixing bicycles, was worried when Ponyboy didn’t come down for more than 24 hours, so he decided to go up after her.

He climbed past the ladder he had used and ultimately scaled about 50 feet up the tree.

“It was a little embarrassing. I definitely feel like I should have made it back down the tree I got up,” said Petersen.

Once firefighters were on the scene, they brought Peterson to safety within 30 minutes. And because their gear was already deployed, the firefighters used their ladder truck to rescue the cat, too.

“There are a lot of fire departments that frown on doing rescues with cats and there are a lot of jokes about fire departments doing rescues with cats,” said Battalion Chief Harry Worley.

Ponyboy didn’t have to use one of her nine lives, and Petersen was also pretty relieved to be back on solid ground.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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