Well he did have a point when you think about it I mean the tree had been there for 10 times longer than the girl.

But I think that there is some subtext in this story that we haven't talked about yet. That while environmentalists particularly the gentleman in this piece may come off as callous by protecting the natural world against the encroachment of human consumption, animal rights people are just freaking nuts. Say what you will about the tree hugging uncle in this story what about the future PETA combat protester of a niece that completely ignored the fact that a cat domestic or not is an animal and as such has certain instincts about the natural world. Ignoring this she unwisely thrust herself into the situation ignoring her shortcomings and inexperience and decided to save the animal, albeit inadvertently she actually in all likelihood hindered the cat from descending. (well her and all of the lower branches that she hit on the way down)