Conference misery::feline

    
    Wow!  What a story!  I can't believe that that idea worked, only
    because in my experience with them, cats are only led to walk onto
    (or into) things that they feel are secure....  but a box with his
    food?  He MUST have been delirious.  I would have been as shocked
    as you!  :-)  But I'm happy to hear that all worked out well and
    that he came back to your arms safe and happy, if not a little
    shell-shocked from his escapade.  I'd be curious to see how soon
    he leaps to the top of that tree again!  :-)))
    
    Good thinking and a great ending for all.
    
    Nancy

    Pat!  You are a VERY creative person!!  And obviously love your
    kitten very much.
      Nancy
    

    
    
         Thanks for the accolades and your right I must love my cat
         because if yu don't think I felt like and idiot standing under
         a tree at midnight hollering, "C'mon baby. Ocean fish. Your
         favorite!"
    
    Pat

    Probably as *foolish* as I look (also at Midnight) standing outside in
    my warm, fuzzy, red robe calling OH LIGHTNING, OH THUNDER, and shaking a 
    box of food to find my indooor -only escapees.  Some of my neighbors
    don't realize I have indoor-only kittys and sort of shy away from
    me....
    
    Sandi, mom to the StormTroopers
     

    Just how often DO cats get stuck in trees?  My cat has gotten stuck
    twice in as many months... he is only a year old.  I think he gets
    chased up, but then 'can't' come down.  The last time I put a ladder
    up, (he was well up) and got him down. He was shaking like a leaf
    as I lifted him onto my shoulder.
    
    The old axim 'you never saw a dead cat in a tree' is hardly amusing.
    Of course you havn't they starve, and then fall out. Smile
    
    
    But seriously, William spent 24 hours in that tree before I FOUND him
    and got him down. There were no signs he was going to climb down on
    his own.  Maybe I didn't wait long enough, or maybe he WOULD have
    starved (actually died of thirst) and fallen out?!
    
    Anybody have an info on whether he probably would have come down on
    his own given enough time.
    
    Tx. Jeff

    Re: Anybody have an info on whether he probably would have come down
    on his own given enough time.
    
    Maybe, maybe not.  It's my understanding that something about cats'
    claws makes it a whole lot easter for them to climb trees than to
    get down.  My neighbors' cat was up in a tree for several days, during
    which time the fire dept. refused to send out a ladder to help.  The
    cat finally got down by itself shortly after a mentally retarded
    boy who lived nearby tried to climb up to rescue it and fell out of the
    tree, breaking his back;  fortunately, he suffered no permanent
    injuries.  Good job, fire dept. :-(
    
    I think you can rent something called a cherry picker (see the Yellow
    Pages) if the cat is too high to reach with your own ladder.
    

    Well, Valentina spent about eight hours in a tree a few weeks ago. 
    (She's almost two.)  Fortunately, she managed to get herself down and
    home just before I went to bed.  Unfortunately, she really mangled her
    claws doing it.  (Not to mention getting tree gunk all over her fur.) 
    When I took her in, the vet commented that she didn't think cats tended
    to climb trees unless they had to.  Valentina's never struck me as the
    particularly athletic type.

    
    re .6 - the thing about cats' claws that makes it a lot easier for them
    to go up trees than come down is their orientation - going up the tree,
    their claws act like hooks that hold them to the tree against gravity.
    Going down their claws are useless, and they can't "turn their hands
    around" to compensate.  It *is* possible for them to "back down", but
    cats seem psychologically unable to do this.  This problem also applies
    to drapes and screens.  Climb up, jump down; if a cat climbs higher
    than it can jump back down, it's stuck.
    
    len.
    

    
    RE: backing down
    
    actually, I've  heard it said that Norwegien Forest Cats (a breed that
    looks a lot like a Maine Coon) will  climb down trees head first. A
    friend of mine has one but won't let me put him in a tree to see if
    this is true :-)
    
    Deb

    
    re: "front"ing down
    
    I'd love to see how this might be done.  Squirrels manage it somehow,
    but I think they have a claw that faces the "other way" and is strong
    enough to support their weight.  I don't see how a cat could use its
    claws to support its weight while facing head down.
    
    Then again, I've seen too many cats defy gravity in one way or another
    to dismiss this out of hand...
    
    len.
     

    My 1 year old cat got stuck in a tree this week for the 3rd time in as
    many months.  The first two times I got him down with a ladder.  The
    2nd time he was in the tree 26 hours before I FOUND him and got him
    down.  "Ever see a dead cat in a tree?" is the type of helpful comment
    I get from 'sympathetic' peers. My answer? Of course not, they starve
    to death and fall out. You have to look BENEATH the tree.  Smile
    
    Seriously though, 26 hours is TOO long in my book. And he DIDN'T come
    down on his own as 'everyone' tells me he will. Maybe I should have
    waited several days or weeks... THEN he would have come down allright.
    But, to me that is NOT a solution. 
    
    This time this week (the 3rd time) I have to CUT the tree down to get
    him out of it.  (he climbed right to the VERY top as I tried to get
    him down).  The tree was about arm thick at the base and in a swamp
    so a bucket truck was out of the question. Believe me, it was an art
    to cut that tree down and get the tree to fall SLOWLY without hurting
    him or throwing him out of it, and this was done in the rain, in a
    swamp after dark. (don't anybody tell me I don't love my cats) smile.
    
    Anybody have any HELPFUL hints on this? He is banned from going outside
    until this is resolved to my satisifaction.  Otherwise he will be an
    indoor cat. But he loves going out so much.
    
    Any hints?
    
    Tx.   Jeff

    
    re .11
    
    I don't know if this is practical or safe for your cat, but you
    may consider clipping his claws just short enough so your cat
    can still defend his/herself but can't go too far up trees or
    curtains ;-).
    
    
    Eva

    If I clip his claws then, as you said he will be unable to defend
    himself well.  Also, he may well NEED to be able to climb a tree to get
    out of harms way, without the claws to climb with, well.....
    
    Tx.  Jeff

    The only solution I see is to keep him indoors.  He'll eventually get
    over it and adjust.  Just don't let him win at his game.  Be strong!
    Karen

>    If I clip his claws then, as you said he will be unable to defend
>    himself well.  Also, he may well NEED to be able to climb a tree to get
>    out of harms way, without the claws to climb with, well.....
    
My cat is an indoor cat so I got her declawed.  When I was talking to the vet
about what *if* she gets out?? he said it's not a problem as far as defending
themselves.  He said that most cats defend themselves with their teeth not their
claws and that their hind claws are sufficient for them to climb if needed.  He
has outdoor cats that are declawed...

Course then the problem of them getting out of a tree still exists so I guess
this is a moot point.  Just wanted to share it though.  I'm sure you folks have
much more cat experience than I but just wanted to pass on what I was told.

B

    
    re .13
    
    >If I clip his claws then, as you said he will be unable to defend
    
       	Well, it depends on what your cat has to defend him/herself
    against. If your cat gets chased by dogs a lot, then going up trees
    is good strategy. If your cat just need to fight other cats, then
    going up trees are useless. When I clip just enough off the tips
    of my new kitty's claws, who is going thru a rug/furniture digging 
    phase, she can still go up trees a little ways, but not all the way
    up to the top. 
    
    
    Eva 
    
    

As for declawing, I do not want to say a word, it is said enough about, I am
strictly against and basta.

My mom's siamese often goes (climbs) up the carpet which hangs on the wall and
safely climbs down again, with swapped paws, looking back behind his shoulder,
safely. His claws are tip-clipped twice a month. He never failed to climb down.
I also saw cats up the tree and then down again. I have a theory:

If the cat can SEE back down and can also see where to put the next paw to, that
means no leaves, enough light, and thick enough tree, it can come down. If it's
leavescovered or too dark, and/or the tree is too thin (paws on the sides of the
treetrunk versus in front of the cat to see them) then it mayhaps cannot. I also
think that if a cat once got frightened about being up and not managing to come
down, it stucks more psychologically than physically. Anyway, I would first try
to call, then food or toy, then climb after the cat if I can, perhaps give him a
pole or the kind to climb over or anything - one is solid: I would not let him
starve and fall out the tree, that's sure. For the fool joke: It is really
seldom that cats get stuck, but can happen. So the equotation is easy: If it
does not come down, bring'im down!  :-)

Nat, having a climbing cat at home

    
    Floyd regularly climbs the screen door, and backs down, as Nat
    describes, looking over his shoulder (last night he made it all the way
    to the top and his weight was enough to peel the screen out of the
    spline groove... another repair session necessary).  Rocky climbs the
    drapes, but they're not "rigid" enough for him to back down, so he
    jumps, but only if he's gotten himself into a situation where he can't
    climb up onto the traverse rod or lateral himself over onto the
    bookcase.  (Only a cat lover could accept the damage to the screens
    and drapes as ordinary, to-be-expected wear-and-tear, a small price to
    pay for the opportunity for the cats to "exercise".) 
    
    Now, if the screen door or drapes were tall enough, their behaviours
    might be different.
    
    len.
    

I would never shy any expense for the cat being happy on the screen - but some
say I am not, erm, not fully, erm, well, not quite enough full upsized if you
see what I mean. :)

The carpet I described was about 3.20 length up (meters, we have them in Europe
here :)), and Alphonse comes down about 2.5 meters climbing and then jumping the
last part. Len is right, I dunno what happened if the way would be much too
longer.

Cats have their eyes quite close to each other, and in the same position (same
plane) as we humans, instead of having them on the sides of their skull like
many other animals have. (Perhaps this is also a point why we love them). So
their stereoscopic seeing mechanism is the same as ours, but the baselength of
the trigonometry used is half or less than ours, so the distance they can
exactly point is about fourth of ours. That's why they use to tip and move their
heads before jumping down from somewhere (ever seen a cat jumping down from a
garden wall?). This headmoving up and down is but very hard to manage if they
are in a vertical position hanging, so I think if they cannot right judge the
height without headmoving, they can get panicked. Just my 2 cents.

Nat