# Do cats in trees actually need rescue?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 24, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737 "2015-05-24T18:48:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@liontamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liontamer)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/1 "2015-05-24T18:48:56Z")
There is a show coming soon about guys climbing trees to save cats.
Do cats really climb trees and starve til they fall or jump or what?
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### Author:  [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2015, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/2 "2015-05-24T19:45:36Z")
If there is nothing keeping the cat up in the tree, such as a barking dog, I believe it would eventually climb down on it’s own rather than starve to death. Assuming it’s not injured.
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### Author:  [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/3 "2015-05-24T19:58:48Z")
When the leaves come down in the fall, do you see lots of cat skeletons in the now bare trees?
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### Author:  [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/4 "2015-05-24T20:18:05Z")
> **[My Cat Is Stuck in a Tree! How Do I Get Her Down? - Vetstreet](https://www.vetstreet.com/dr-marty-becker/how-do-i-get-a-cat-out-of-a-tree)**
>
> Forget calling 911 if you've got a cat stuck in a tree. Fortunately, says Dr. Marty Becker, most cats can get themselves down when they're good and ready.
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### Author:  [@sbunny8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbunny8)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2015, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/5 "2015-05-24T20:42:28Z")
Many cats find they have lots of confidence going up and not as much confidence coming down. Many pet owners spend lots of effort trying to coax the cat down out of the tree. It’s true that lots of cats get “rescued” but I’m convinced that if they hadn’t been rescued they still would have come down on their own.
I once had a 21-month-old cat get stuck up in a tree where the lowest branch was twelve feet off the ground. She was over twenty feet up, and crying pitifully. I sat with her for a while, talked to her, finally I decided I would go to get a ladder. As soon as I started to walk away, she came down. But she fell the last twelve feet and hurt herself. She wailed loudly but she broke any bones; she was just bruised.
Statistics show that cats easily survive short falls and tall ones but sometimes are killed by medium falls. So twenty feet actually might be more dangerous than two hundred. [The master speaks.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1143/do-cats-always-land-unharmed-on-their-feet-no-matter-how-far-they-fall)
> [@BrotherCadfael](#):
>
> When the leaves come down in the fall, do you see lots of cat skeletons in the now bare trees?
True, that proves that the cats don’t stay up there and starve. However, there could be hundreds of cats who fell while trying to climb down and died at the bottom, in which case you’d hardly expect to see a skeleton because the owner would have rushed it to the vet and/or given the cat a burial.
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### Author:  [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2015, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/6 "2015-05-24T21:01:08Z")
Nope. The owner of the cat is another matter.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2015, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/7 "2015-05-24T21:10:05Z")
I once rescued a cat from a tree because for something like 2 hours it weowed and complained. It was scared. So I climbed the damned tree. Mind you it was also scared when I reached for it and it tried to put up a fight.
In the end it worked out OK. I don’t think I could have slept hearing the poor critter meowing all night long.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2015, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/8 "2015-05-24T21:25:16Z")
Falls of twenty feet might be dangerous to a cat, but any cat can jump from that height safely if it wants to.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2015, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/9 "2015-05-24T23:32:10Z")
I’ve never seen the skeleton of a cat up in a tree.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/10 "2015-05-25T01:25:57Z")
> [@Squink](#):
>
> I’ve never seen the skeleton of a cat up in a tree.
In time they shrink, until they’re indistinguishable from exoskeletons of cicadas.
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### Author:  [@sweepkick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweepkick)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/11 "2015-05-25T02:39:49Z")
This happened a couple weeks ago:
[http://www.kwwl.com/story/28982050/2015/05/05/chippewa-falls-cat-stuck-in-tree-for-5-days-resident-out-of-ideas](http://www.kwwl.com/story/28982050/2015/05/05/chippewa-falls-cat-stuck-in-tree-for-5-days-resident-out-of-ideas)
Poor guy was stuck for 5 days.
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2015, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/12 "2015-05-25T02:43:26Z")
…and then heaps of people gather around the base of the tree so it gets even more scared. They generally just need to be left alone.
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2015, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/13 "2015-05-25T03:18:28Z")
> [@sweepkick](#):
>
> This happened a couple weeks ago:
>
> [http://www.kwwl.com/story/28982050/2015/05/05/chippewa-falls-cat-stuck-in-tree-for-5-days-resident-out-of-ideas](http://www.kwwl.com/story/28982050/2015/05/05/chippewa-falls-cat-stuck-in-tree-for-5-days-resident-out-of-ideas)
>
> Poor guy was stuck for 5 days.
There was a similar story in my area around the same time.
An arborist volunteered his services to get the cat down, and all was well.
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### Author:  [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2015, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/14 "2015-05-25T04:02:19Z")
I saw a cat stuck in a tree that must have been 50 feet high. I couldn’t stay, I don’t know what became of it.
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### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2015, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/15 "2015-05-25T07:28:35Z")
A friend’s cat once got stuck on the roof of a three-story apartment building next to his house. The first couple of days he said, “She’ll get down, there are no cat skeletons in trees” etc. The third day he and I went up the fire escape. He climbed onto the railing, about an inch wide and kinda wobbly, to reach the roof, and lured the cat over to the edge. She came willingly enough and then dug her claws into the roof when he tried to take her off. While balancing on this railing. (I was holding onto him, and I was none too confident in my ability to keep him from falling.)
Eventually he managed to transfer her claws from the roof to his arm, jumped down onto the fire escape, and just barely kept himself from throwing this cat the rest of the way down. He was scratched all to hell and the cat had something wrong with her paw, a dislocated toe (finger, whatever) or something. But so much for “they will get down by themselves.”
He later decided that he just hadn’t given her enough time. A couple more days and she could have jumped onto the fire escape by herself, if not the railing, and she was a lot more suited to walking on a narrow railing than he was. Just not desperate enough.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2015, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/16 "2015-05-25T11:59:04Z")
And how many cats would he willingly have sacrificed to save himself as he was falling 3 stories to his death or encripplement?
Talk about a lousy decision on risk/reward. That there is Darwin Award material.
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### Author:  [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2015, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/17 "2015-05-25T13:15:08Z")
In the UK, the Fire and Rescue Service has refused to come out to rescue cats for many years.
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### Author:  [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2015, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/18 "2015-05-25T14:35:37Z")
Two things will get a cat down out of a tree safely and quickly.
1. A can of food opened and left at the base of the tree.
2. A garden hose.
I have used both successfully, several times.
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### Author:  [@Graymalkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Graymalkin)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2015, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/19 "2015-05-25T14:56:08Z")
I have a gray cat named Graymalkin who got “stuck” up in a tree three times–over 4 nights each time–the first summer I moved out into the country. Tried my darndest to get the poor meowing critter to come done. I put up a ladder, strung up tarps to make him jump on something soft, coaxed with tuna, etc. Each time he came down on his own, but not until four nights had passed. I think he finally figured out how to shimmy down. He was real thirsty when he got back in the house. Hasn’t got stuck since.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2015, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-in-trees-actually-need-rescue/720737/20 "2015-05-25T15:25:52Z")
Yes, they can get stuck until they die. I had a pet cat when I was young that climbed up a very tall but scraggly pine tree with just a few branches near the top. We tried to coax it down for 4 days with no success. The basic problem is that cats can go up tree a whole lot easier than they can come down especially if the tree resembles a tall pole more than a majestic oak. By day 5, it was in extreme distress and making sounds that only come from cats in imminent danger and she was obviously never coming down on her own.
We didn’t know what to do so we got the volunteer fire department to come out. They didn’t even have any equipment that was tall enough to reach it so we brainstormed. My father had the only solution at all - the branch she was on was rather small so he could just shoot it out from under her with a large rifle.
He took out a 30.06 and carefully aimed at the base of the branch. The shot placement was critical because the cat was near the base itself. The idea worked for some definitions of ‘work’. The branch collapsed and the cat fell straight down. The problem was that she landed a whole lot harder than you would think a cat should but it was still alive. We took it to the vet immediately. She hung on for a few days and seemed like she was going to make it but she died rather suddenly from complications related to the internal injuries she sustained during the fall.
I was devastated at the time but, in retrospect, we did everything that could reasonably be done to get her down safely. It sounds clever to say that you never see cat skeletons high in trees but that doesn’t really mean anything. Given the right circumstances, they will cling to the branch they are on for days until they get weak enough to fall and probably die on the ground.
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