Firefighter hospitalized after being pushed off tree by cat he was trying to rescue

A man was hospitalized during a failed mission to save a cat that was stuck in a tree. A property owner in New Zealand, called firefighters to help his cat named Morty, get off a tree in Porirua, at about 8:30 a.m. A firefighter used a rope to climb up the tree, which was on a steep and muddy terrain. When the firefighter reached the cat, it attacked him. The cat hit the man in the face several times, and he fell to the ground. Porirua senior station Officer Owen Woodman said that the firefighter “fell some distance after the cat decided it didn't want to be rescued.”
Woodman said that the firefighter was taken by helicopter to the Wellington Hospital, where he is being treated. The injuries are not believed to be life threatening.