There are feel-good stories, and then there are the ones that make you want to stand up and cheer. An orange tabby cat named Biscotti spent three full days trapped high in a tree in Toms River, New Jersey, growing hungrier and more exhausted by the hour – until one man with a harness, some climbing gear, and a genuine love for animals showed up to save the day. It’s the kind of rescue that reminds you that heroes come in all shapes, and sometimes they wear a hard hat and carry a bag of cat treats. Let’s dive in.
Three Long Days Up a Pitch Pine
Imagine being stranded on a narrow ledge with no food, no water, and no way down. That’s essentially what Biscotti was dealing with. Steven Murrow hoisted himself into the branches of a pitch pine with one mission – rescue Biscuit, an orange tabby who had climbed high into the tree in Toms River and couldn’t figure out how to get back down.
“He’s been up there for three days,” a woman told Murrow in a video he shared of the rescue on the Facebook page for his company, Tesla Tree Service. Three days is a long time for any animal to endure the elements perched on a branch. Honestly, it’s the kind of situation that makes your heart sink the moment you hear about it.
The video shows Murrow grab Biscuit and secure him in a bag for a trip back to the ground and to his grateful owners. Once on solid ground, the owner took the feline in to warm up. Safe, reunited, and no worse for wear – Biscotti’s ordeal was finally over.
Meet the Man Behind the Rescue
Steven Murrow owns Tesla Tree Service in New Jersey and is going viral for getting a cat out of a tree. He’s 42 years old, based in Pitman, and carries the quiet confidence of someone who has done this sort of thing hundreds of times. Yet there’s nothing routine about the way he approaches each rescue.
For Murrow, it was just another day in the trees – and just another cat rescue of more than 150 animal rescues he has performed since opening his tree service in 2022. In fact, Murrow started his tree service in the first place as a result of rescuing cats. That’s a pretty extraordinary origin story for a business, if you think about it. Most people start a company to make money. Murrow started one to keep helping animals.
Murrow was a contract climber for eight years for other tree companies, which means he came into this work with real, tested expertise. He wasn’t a weekend hobbyist who decided one afternoon to shimmy up a tree. He was a seasoned professional who chose to redirect his skills toward something deeply compassionate.
From Hobby to Licensed Business – Thanks to New Jersey
Here’s a fun detail most people don’t know about Murrow’s backstory. While working for another company, he began helping stuck cats for free – until New Jersey told him he had to be licensed. So that’s exactly what Murrow did. In other words, the state’s regulations accidentally gave the world a full-time cat rescue service. There’s a strange kind of poetry in that.
He actually launched his whole tree business because of these rescues, with New Jersey requiring him to get a license before he could continue. It’s a mission Murrow unintentionally set out on about three years ago after a friend called him for help. What started as a single favor for a friend spiraled into a calling that has now touched the lives of over 150 cats and their worried owners.
Rescuing cats from trees is just something he does because he doesn’t want to see the animals – or their human friends – suffer. And if that doesn’t make you feel something warm, I’m not sure what will.
Why Cats Get Stuck in the First Place
Let’s be real – most of us have wondered at some point why cats, who seem so impossibly nimble, end up needing a professional to get them down from a tree. The answer is actually fascinating. Cats can climb down, but to do so they must come down backward, and that is simply not instinctive to them. Their instinct is to climb down forward, or head-first, because that is how they go everywhere, including up the tree.
Climbing down backward is not instinctive – it’s a skill they must actively learn. Some cats learn it and can freely go up and down trees. Others, however, either never had a chance to learn it or failed to learn it, and those are the ones who get stuck. Think of it like learning to back a car into a parking spot. The skill doesn’t come automatically; it takes practice.
Feline claws are great for climbing up trees, but they face the wrong way to go down trees headfirst, meaning the cat can’t steady itself. Consequently, cats have to either jump or clamber down the tree trunk backward. If a cat is stuck for more than 24 hours, hunger and stress can begin to pose significant risks. Three days, as in Biscotti’s case, is a genuinely dangerous amount of time.
The Rescue Technique That Gets Results
Approaching a frightened cat high in a tree is nothing like simply walking up to a pet on the ground. The animal is stressed, disoriented, and may view even a well-meaning rescuer as a threat. Every step has to be deliberate – not just for safety, but also to keep the cat calm. As one experienced climber described it, cats don’t know if you’re a predator, prey, or a friend, so it’s the rescuer’s job to reassure them.
The cat may be understandably wary of the large stranger coming towards him, but often relents when the rescuer presents treats. The hungry cat will meow fervently while lapping it up, then move closer looking for some affection. It’s a delicate, patient process – more like a negotiation than a chase. Murrow has clearly mastered that balance between confidence and gentleness.
In-tree rescues take an hour and a half on average, though some have taken as long as six hours. Once trust is established, the cat is secured safely into a bag for the descent. It sounds simple, but it requires the kind of calm, methodical focus that only comes with genuine experience.
A Global Network Dedicated to Cats in Trees
What many people don’t realize is that Murrow isn’t operating alone in this niche mission. Tesla Tree Service is part of a worldwide network of tree services that rescue stuck cats. The Cat In A Tree Emergency Rescue website lists more than 100 companies across the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom that perform cat rescues. That’s a remarkable global community united by a genuinely good cause.
Murrow’s rescues are primarily within about an hour of his home in Pitman, Gloucester County, but he has on occasion made trips as far as southern Delaware to help someone with their cat. He’s already handled a dozen saves just this year. The demand, it seems, is not going anywhere anytime soon.
His rescuing devotion to cats might make you think he would have a bunch of felines at home. But Murrow and his wife, Stephanie, have only one – Baby, who he rescued from a tree about six months ago. Of course he did. That detail is almost too perfect.
Going Viral and Spreading the Word
Murrow shared a video of the event on TikTok and it went viral. In a media landscape saturated with noise, negativity, and outrage, a simple video of a kind man carefully lowering a frightened orange cat to safety cut through everything. People are hungry for this kind of story – and honestly, they deserve more of them.
Murrow said people offer to hire his tree service for work to thank him for rescuing cats, but he limits his tree work to much closer to home. “If people want to give back, they can donate to their local shelter or volunteer,” he said. He’s not using the goodwill as a sales funnel. He’s redirecting it toward the broader animal welfare community. That says a lot about the kind of person he is.
The video of Biscotti’s rescue resonated with millions because it tapped into something universal – the love between a pet and their owner, and the relief of seeing that bond restored. It’s hard to say for sure why certain stories spread the way they do, but I think this one hit because the kindness in it felt completely unperformed and real.
Biscotti’s story is more than just a cute tale about a cat in a tree. It’s a reminder that real community heroes often don’t wear capes – sometimes they wear climbing harnesses and carry a bag of treats. With more than 150 animal rescues performed since opening his tree service in 2022, Steven Murrow has quietly built something remarkable: a one-man operation fueled entirely by compassion, skill, and a refusal to let an animal suffer when he has the ability to help.
The next time you hear a cat crying from somewhere up high and out of reach, know that there are people like Murrow out there – ready to climb. If a cat has been stuck for more than 24 hours, experts recommend contacting a local tree surgeon to see if they can help. Don’t wait, and don’t assume the animal will just figure it out on its own.
Biscotti is home, warm, and fed. And somewhere in New Jersey, Steven Murrow is probably already gearing up for the next rescue. What would you have done if it were your cat up in that tree?
