Cats
A Cat Owner’s Nightmare! Gone out on a limb!
It’s all too familiar. Your cat usually spends the days outside, but is always home for dinner. Tonight is different. It’s dinnertime and there is no sign of your dependable pet. You start the search, patrol the neighborhood, and worry. Suddenly you hear a "meow" you recognize. So you follow the call of the wild - the sound is coming from above. And there- 40 to 50 feet above you- is your sweet pet, and very terrified!
Okay so you get some food and put it beneath the tree and wait. Your cat doesn’t budge. The next day your pet is still out on a limb, lying on her belly, all four legs hanging down over the branch. She meows when she sees your family, but she has no idea how to get down.
A call to the local SPCA produces the advice that the cat will come down on her own. So you continue your vigil.
One worried cat owner in this situation called a tree surgeon who agreed to help him out. He appeared looking like Paul Bunyan, wearing spiked shoes. A coil of rope was flung over his shoulder, and in a flash he was in the tree. The next you know, the obliging tree surgeon had shimmied down the rope with the cat holding onto his shoulder for dear life. Safely on the ground, the cat raced for the house and her food.
If you let your cat go outside unsupervised, be prepared to deal with a similar situation at some point. Cats are climbing animals by nature, and don’t think about the consequences when they go up a tree or onto a roof.
Often your cat will be chasing a bird or a squirrel. It’s stalking instinct has taken over and it is concentrating on it’s prey. Then the bird will fly away, and the cat notices where it is. Looking down from 40 or 50 feet is a novel experience for a cat, and it doesn’t know what to do. When it is frightened, it will freeze.
Some SPCA’s will make house calls to rescue cats from trees or roofs, some won’t. (This is not usually considered an emergency situation - even though you may feel differently). Most fire departments will not come to the aid of a cat, but policies vary from one location to another, so just check with the fire chief.
If you go after your cat on your own, be sure to take a blanket with you. A frightened cat may claw- or at the very least dig it’s claws into you to hold on for dear life during the descent. If your pet is in a small tree - don’t shake the tree! The cat could fall to the ground resulting in serious internal injuries, in spite of the belief that a cat always lands on it’s feet.
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