It's the quintessential small town emergency: the fire department responding to a call of a cat stuck in a tree on Main Street.

"She got up there and froze," said Wareham Assistant Fire Chief Richard Sleightholm.

Except Sleightholm wasn't talking about the cat - by the time the fire department left,  "Baby girl" was still meowing in the 30-foot tree.

The firefighters rescued the cat's owner, Alana MacNeil, after neighbors boosted her up onto the roof of the house to rescue the cat.  Instead, MacNeil found herself in need of a little help.

MacNeil was a little embarrassed after the ordeal, which brought the police, Wareham Ladder truck, an ambulance, and animal control to the home.

She said that the plan was to get on the roof from a second-floor balcony. MacNeil would then cross over the peak of the roof and crawl down the other side to the corner  nearest the tree in which the cat was stuck.  Then, somebody would pass her a board from a second-floor window, and she would place it between the tree and the roof - forming a bridge from the tree to the roof that the cat could cross. By the time the firemen got there, MacNeil was sitting just below the peak of the roof behind a chimney.

Wareham Ladder Truck 1 responded and two firemen assisted MacNeil down to the ground. Unfortunately, the ground was too soft around the tree to help the cat.

Animal Control Officer Carlston Wood said not to worry, however.

"I have yet to find an expired cat in a tree," he said.

The next morning, the cat had made it down.