Cat Rescuer Badly Injured In Attempt To Rescue Feline From Tree

MANTECA (CBS13) - A well-known cat rescuer was critically injured while trying to save a cat up a tree last week.

The 70-year-old climbed up to help, but the limb gave out and both the woman and cat tumbled to the ground 40 feet below last Friday.

Karen Duke took a nasty fall. Her friends say she is making some good progress, but she's not out of the woods:

"She's a go-getter, an energetic, fantastic woman," said Melanie Parker, her partner in the cat rescue group in the Manteca and Lathrop area. "She nearly died."

Duke suffered a broken femur and a punctured lung among other injuries.

"She nearly died," Parker said.

But there are hopeful signs. She's still in the intensive care unit at UC Davis Medical Center. Karen is now wiggling her fingers and toes and is breathing on her own.

Melanie says she and Karen rescue 300 feral cats a year, getting them spayed or neutered then they set up feeding stations. Not knowing where all of her partner's stations are, Melanie fears some cats are going hungry.

"We're having a hard time," she said. "There's hungry cats out there."