If your cat was stuck up a tree, would you call the fire department to get it out, even if it meant you would have to pay them for it?
I don’t see many cat skeletons in trees, so probably not.
Joe
Nope. My cats rarely go in trees, but they never seem to have problems getting down. My folks’ cats climb up and down their huge oak trees all the time. Never get stuck.
I’d put a can of StarKist (opened) under the tree. Cat should find a way down really fast.
No, because apparently the people to call are animal control.
Why would you have to pay the fire department??? That’s not how it works.
We once called the fire department for a non-fire situation* and they didn’t charge us anything. That’s what taxes are for.
*Our gas oven wouldn’t shut off because of a broken thermostat or something and we were freaking out and couldn’t think of what else to do.
My incredibly stupid cat got stuck about thirty feet up a tree a couple of years ago. The idiot was treed by a pair of baby raccoons. My wife called the fire department and they laughed and told her they absolutely would not come out for that. Apparently, we were supposed to call an arborist instead. I saw several online that mentioned cat retrieval as one of their services. In the end, we got him down another way, but I bookmarked a couple of numbers for future use.
No, I wouldn’t. Unless it was up there for, like, days on end or duct-taped to a branch.
I did climb a tree once to peel a cat off a branch after he was up there all day, the piteous meowing was driving me nuts. A stray cat went up a tree in my back yard several years ago and was up there all day, I think he was mainly afraid of the dogs, even after I made them stay inside. But he gathered enough courage to leave during the night.
I don’t have to worry about that since my cats are indoor only.
Cat goes up tree where it likes to be and feels safe. It knows it can come down any time it wants. Big animals with two forward facing eyes (ie predators) stand at the bottom of the tree and stare at it. Cat finds staring threatening. Cat consequently doesn’t come down. This causes more big animals with two forward facing eyes to come and stare at it. Cat becomes more determined in its decision that the best thing to do is stay in the tree, where it is safe. Huge red machine with more even strange big animals come. Cat becomes absolutely petrified and reaches an absolute stubborn unchangeable decision that it is not going to come down for any reason whatsoever. And so on…
Just leave the thing alone and walk away. When it wants to come down it will come down. Cats are good climbers. They don’t get stuck in trees. Ever. They just make decisions not to come down.
I called them once because a cat (not mine) was stuck up one.
The answer I got was that the fire department doesn’t rescue cats stuck up trees.
Maybe it’s different for each area/city/state.
My first thought would be to called the RSPCA to ask for advice. So no, I wouldn’t call the fire service.
My neighbor’s cat climbed a huge oak in our yard. He was there for a couple of days and kept going higher instead of coming down. My neighbor hired an arborist (after finding out that the FD doesn’t do cats). As the arborist climbed the tree, the cat kept going higher. Finally, with no tree left and the arborist within grabbing distance, the cat just leapt out of the tree. He fell at least 40 feet and hit the top of the chain link fence. Amazingly, he hit the ground, hopped up and ran away. No permanent damage. We were sure the fence would have broken something. I think it cost around $100 for the arborist to essentially scare the cat out of the tree.
After witnessing that, I’d just leave future treed cats alone. They’ll come down eventually, even if it’s by the same route that this one took.
I used to take comfort from that saying, until I noticed a dead raccoon lodged high in the fork of a tree. I kept an eye on it for a couple of weeks, just to see how it turned out, you know, and then one day it was gone! I looked on the ground to see if it had fallen, but nope. And then I realized that whatever had taken that raccoon could have also taken a cat, and that explains why you never see a cat skeleton in a tree.
We used to call a tree service for my poor stupid Lloyd. I honestly don’t think he could ever have gotten down alone. The tree guy would come at the end of his work day and fetch him down for free. Of course, we always paid him whatever cash we had on hand.
What did they do?
My Rocky rather enjoyed the whole drama of being fetched down off high things – at least that’s what we concluded after the third time she went up next doors scaffolding and onto the roof. Each time my ex went up to fetch her and she came back down as nice as pie. She also climbed a few other things to be rescued and funnily enough this behaviour stopped once she became one of only two cats instead of five. Yes, I know, we should have left her up there 
Edited to add: After posting I realised how this might have started. When she was a very tiny kitten we had her out in the front garden while we we gardening and an alsatian dog rushed across the road and grabbed her. It flipped her up to get a better grip and she twisted away and went straight up a small tree. That was lucky for the alsatian, we had spades. The stupid dog owners stood across the road laughing and saying “He’s just playing”. Anyhow that was the first time she was taken down from a tree and cuddled and made much of…
The reason cats are good at going up trees and not so good about coming down is the shape of their claws. They curve inward toward the pad. Great for climbing up, but offer little assistance in climbing down unless the cat comes down backwards. I think cats tend to stay up for so long because they know they don’t have the grip like they had going up. Of course the feline should have thought about that prior to the climb.
I know we had a cat that went up a pine tree and didn’t come down for 2 days. It was meowing pitifully so we stood at the bottom and coaxed it to jump the 15 or 20 feet down and we caught it.
Anyway, no I can’t see calling the FD but I think they might do it.
Thanks for the replies, everyone.
Thankfully, this didn’t happen to us, but to an online friend of mine. Her indoor cat got out last night, and ended up over two stories high in a tree in her yard. This led my husband and I to muse over what we would do if such a thing happened with one of our cats, though they are both indoor.
First, I googled about the fire department thing, and found a link to a Straight Dope article on the subject: Do fire departments actually rescue cats from trees? - The Straight Dope.
Neat, huh?
In the end, we decided that we would maybe call them up and ask only if the cat were up there for more than a day (using a non-emergency number, of course). I would likely be frantic, though, because I am a total cream puff about my cats. Using landscape/tree folks is something I hadn’t thought of, but sounds like a good idea.
Anyway, in the end, they got their cat down, and all is well.
I can only think of two places to call for a gas leak from any source. The fire department and the gas company. I’d probably start with the gas company, but I wouldn’t blame anyone for calling the fire department.