This calico (tortie-and-white) mother cat, watched by her owner (a bit irritating), tries to rescue her kitten from a tree but fails. She failed because she decided that she was unable to get a sufficiently good bite on the scruff of the neck of her kitten. I think she decided that her kitten was liable to fall if she failed to get a good hold through the classic scruff-of-neck bite.
She backed off which encouraged her kitten to make his own way down. You can see that he is unsure whether to come down backwards (the correct way normally for domestic cats as the claws point backwards) or partly forwards and partly backwards. He successfully makes it though. It is quite an interesting exercise in mental processing by the mother. She clearly made the correct decision. It shows that mother cats need to feel that they have a good hold of their kittens before attempting to move them in this manner.
Yes you’re correct; the mom couldn’t get a good hold and had to let her youngster climb down themself. She was not happy about doing it that way (judging by her stressed panting) but it worked out okay. The momma did try to oblige her human’s urging too, so, she was under pressure and apparently felt like she failed everyone. Maybe that added to her stress unnecessarily, huh? The kitten would have been fine falling from that low height onto the green foliage below. Still, mommas do worry big time.