"Cat In A Tree" stories

[Stinky The Clown]

Why do people feel compelled to 'rescue' cats who refuse to come down from trees?

I understand that cats can get frightened after climbing a tree and refuse to come down. But I also suspect the condition is not fatal.

I've never seen a kitty skeleton in a tree.

There was a story on the teevee just a few minutes ago that inspired this.

[yellerpup]

1. In CT our apartment complex bordered on a nature preserve.

Lots of wiggly animals in the grass, lots of tall trees, it was a fascinating playground for kitties. My neighbor's cat climbed up a big locust tree, I think, maybe the equivalent of 3 stories and cried, cried, cried for about three days. Neighbor also had crying children to deal with, so I took over trying to coax the cat down. I brought food, begged, bribed with catnip, more begging. Then I called the local fire department, they came on the third day and ran a ladder up the tree as far as it would go and when the fireman got ALMOST close enough, the cat streaked up another story. The FD spent a couple of hours before they got tired and said there was nothing more they could do. It was chilly and coming on to nightfall. I took a can of cat food out under the tree, (crying because the FD wasn't coming back--and also because I'm a hopeless sap) popped the top off that sucker, and all of a sudden the cat remembered how to come down out of the upper branches. He cried the whole time he RAN down the trunk and when he hit the ground, he indulged in the noisiest, hungriest non-nom-noms I've ever heard. I don't worry about cats up a tree any more. When they are ready to come down, they can!

Edit for typo.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. A great story .... and another unsightly kitty ......

..... skeleton averted. :)

[Longhorn]

3. My daughter's cat climbed very high in their tree so I googled what to do.

First, I read that the "never see cat skeletons in a tree" philosophy isn't considered a very strong argument because if a cat dies in a tree, it would fall down long before it turned into a skeleton.

Second, there were stories that did end tragically. After several days with no food and water, especially water, the cat can become so weak that it can't hang on. Wind, rain, snow, sleet, extreme heat (as we have here in Texas) and extreme cold can also take their toll.

In my daughter's case, their AC wasn't working so they opened the windows which have screens. However, another daughter had been visiting with her dog months before when they windows were open and the dog had chewed a small hole in the screen, not big small, they thought, for the cat to get out. She first went under the backyard wood deck but my son-in-law, a young boy in a man's 31-year-old body, decided to jump up and down on the deck to scare the cat out. It worked but the cat went straight up the tree.

They tried to coax her down with food but it hadn't been that long since she had eaten. After several hours, they called my husband, a remodeling contractor, and he told them where to get an extension ladder from one of his jobs, then went over to see if he could help. My son-in-law went up the ladder and called to the cat and when she didn't come, he got angry and yelled at it and it ran further up the tree (In his defense, he never had pets growing up and he has a lot to learn, though with four cats, he's trying and he does love them. He is apparently beginning to learn that cats can't really be trained in the way he expects.)

Anyway, my husband took over and went up the ladder (which I specifically asked him NOT to do but I wasn't there. :)) He got to within two feet of the cat in the thin swaying branches and had the idea of asking for the cat's scratching post. He patiently held the post out to the cat and after several minutes, the cat gingerly turned around and very slowly inched closer to the post. Then she slowly put one paw on it at a time until she was completely on it. He said she was trembling the entire time. He pulled the post to him and got her. Amazingly, she did not try to scratch him at all and he brought her down.

Maybe she would have come down on her own. Who knows? These four cats are inside cats with very little experience outdoors. I know my daughter and son-in-law would have had a long worrisome few days if that's how long it took for her to come down on her own. :shrug: