Kittens climbing trees
Discussion
Hey,
My cat Nelson, who is about 7 months now was allowed out the house as of yesterday. We have had him for a few months now and were cautious about letting him out early as we picked him up after he had run away from his previous owner and had been handed in to the vets where my OH works. On his second day he decided to climb about 30 foot into a tree and get stuck on a fork. It was vertical with no branches after about 7 foot from the floor. The tree is right outside our house and we noticed when he was meowing repatedly and we could hear him from our lounge.
After 45 mins of trying to tempt him down we decided to ask the neighbours for a ladder. Luckily, one neigbour had a pretty big one. I held the bottom while the OH climbed up. She was standing on the top rung, arms streche up and could only just reach him - not particularly safe. Anwyay, she had to scruff nelson and pull him from the tree. He then hung on to the OH for dear life until we got him back in the house, poor thing.
Anyway, this was pretty terrifying for Nels, and pretty unsafe for the OH precariously perched on top of a ladder nearly 30 foot up. Is he likely to do this again? He is currently on house arrest until at least tomorrow afternoon. Is there anything we can do to stop him climbing that tree? Although there are many trees around, this one was the worst choice as many of the others I could have climbed up using branches. We don't want to have to keep asking the neighbours to borrow the ladder. Also we don't really want to be put in the pretty unsafe position of being perched on top of the ladder again. If he goes any higher there would be no way we could get him down again.
IF this does happen, how do the fire brigade feel about being called out to a stuck cat? I really don't think our rescue mission today was particulary safe and wouldn't want to repeat it.
We may have acted to soon, but both the OH and I were off to work in the afternoon and didn't want to leave him until this evening (I'm not home yet) as it would be dark if he was still stuck.
My cat Nelson, who is about 7 months now was allowed out the house as of yesterday. We have had him for a few months now and were cautious about letting him out early as we picked him up after he had run away from his previous owner and had been handed in to the vets where my OH works. On his second day he decided to climb about 30 foot into a tree and get stuck on a fork. It was vertical with no branches after about 7 foot from the floor. The tree is right outside our house and we noticed when he was meowing repatedly and we could hear him from our lounge.
After 45 mins of trying to tempt him down we decided to ask the neighbours for a ladder. Luckily, one neigbour had a pretty big one. I held the bottom while the OH climbed up. She was standing on the top rung, arms streche up and could only just reach him - not particularly safe. Anwyay, she had to scruff nelson and pull him from the tree. He then hung on to the OH for dear life until we got him back in the house, poor thing.
Anyway, this was pretty terrifying for Nels, and pretty unsafe for the OH precariously perched on top of a ladder nearly 30 foot up. Is he likely to do this again? He is currently on house arrest until at least tomorrow afternoon. Is there anything we can do to stop him climbing that tree? Although there are many trees around, this one was the worst choice as many of the others I could have climbed up using branches. We don't want to have to keep asking the neighbours to borrow the ladder. Also we don't really want to be put in the pretty unsafe position of being perched on top of the ladder again. If he goes any higher there would be no way we could get him down again.
IF this does happen, how do the fire brigade feel about being called out to a stuck cat? I really don't think our rescue mission today was particulary safe and wouldn't want to repeat it.
We may have acted to soon, but both the OH and I were off to work in the afternoon and didn't want to leave him until this evening (I'm not home yet) as it would be dark if he was still stuck.
Thousands of cats climb trees every day, very few get stuck. I'm 99% sure Nelson would have eventually found his way down himself if he was left, and the only way for him to learn what his boundaries are is with practice. I don't blame you - as inexperienced owners we let out our first cat 10 years ago and 'rescued' her from a tree shortly after, 10 years and another 4 cats later experience has shown they will work things out for themselves if you resist the initial urge to rescue them.
Superficial said:
Thousands of cats climb trees every day, very few get stuck. I'm 99% sure Nelson would have eventually found his way down himself if he was left, and the only way for him to learn what his boundaries are is with practice. I don't blame you - as inexperienced owners we let out our first cat 10 years ago and 'rescued' her from a tree shortly after, 10 years and another 4 cats later experience has shown they will work things out for themselves if you resist the initial urge to rescue them.
Yeah I known that there is the chance that he could have got down. I was in two minds on what to do, but what swayed me was the fact that I've only just got home tonight and if he was still there now rescuing at this time would have been a lot harder! I'm also out at 5.30am tomorrow until the evening, so leaving overnight wasn't an option. However if he goes up again he is finding his own way down I think!Marf said:
SmokinV8 said:
i`m sure the fire service charge for "rescue" of cats.
Not sure that they do.Sister's cat got caught up a tree, was missing for a couple of days before she found it. She called the RSPCA who in turn called out the Fire Brigade who came out to rescue the cat. No charge.
Munter said:
Will a cat climb down a rope?
Nope but they will choose to slide down the slippery "arms" of the ladder rather than walk down 
One of mine did exactly the same as the OP except that I knew exactly where the cat was for a good 48hrs before we attempted a full on rescue mission!
Having 2nights sleep whilst either listening to her miaowing or just worrying why she'd gone quiet was pretty tough!
Funnily enough she hasn't done it again!!
balders118 said:
After 45 mins of trying to tempt him down we decided to ask the neighbours for a ladder. Luckily, one neigbour had a pretty big one. I held the bottom while the OH climbed up. She was standing on the top rung, arms streche up and could only just reach him - not particularly safe.
you utter gent 
mrs envy's cat is utterly fantastic at climbing but incredibly s
t at descendinghe regularly climbs onto the roof (three storeys up) and we've no idea how he gets up there, he always gets rescued through the velux window though despite him being left up there deliberately for hours at a time
in the main, cats are pretty thick and yours could take a while to work out that he will get stuck
sleep envy said:
you utter gent mrs envy's cat is utterly fantastic at climbing but incredibly s
t at descendinghe regularly climbs onto the roof (three storeys up) and we've no idea how he gets up there, he always gets rescued through the velux window though despite him being left up there deliberately for hours at a time
in the main, cats are pretty thick and yours could take a while to work out that he will get stuck
Send cat for training.
I think if said cat can get say 5 grand of charity sponsorship the first jump should be free.
Or in true PH fashion you could try making your own parachute set by remodelling your action man kit and lobbing kitty off a series of higher drops to train him yourself.
I think if said cat can get say 5 grand of charity sponsorship the first jump should be free.
Or in true PH fashion you could try making your own parachute set by remodelling your action man kit and lobbing kitty off a series of higher drops to train him yourself.
To stop a cat from climbing the tree from the ground fit a sleeve of metal (aluminium, stainless steel ?) around the tree which is at least 2m from the ground and itself is at least 0.75m high. This will stop any* mammal from being able to grip the tree with it's claws.
They do this to lots of power-poles here in NZ to stop possums climbing up and shorting out the electricity supply.
They do this to lots of power-poles here in NZ to stop possums climbing up and shorting out the electricity supply.
- excludes big bears
dobly said:
To stop a cat from climbing the tree from the ground fit a sleeve of metal (aluminium, stainless steel ?) around the tree which is at least 2m from the ground and itself is at least 0.75m high. This will stop any* mammal from being able to grip the tree with it's claws.
They do this to lots of power-poles here in NZ to stop possums climbing up and shorting out the electricity supply.
Top tip of the day! They do this to lots of power-poles here in NZ to stop possums climbing up and shorting out the electricity supply.
- excludes big bears
The Beaver King said:
balders118 said:
I held the bottom while the OH climbed up. She was standing on the top rung, arms streche up and could only just reach him - not particularly safe.
You sent your missus up the ladder! Quality!! 
I think I already said this, but she wasn't happy holding the ladder at the bottom with me climbing up as was she wasn't confident she could hold it steady if I wobbled. Also she is a vet nurse, so she is much better at handling scared/angry cats.
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