The lack of cat skeletons in trees supports the hypothesis that cats do NOT stay up in the tree until they starve. They do eventually come down. But that still leaves several questions. #1 When the cat eventually comes down, will it injure itself in the process? #2 If a human tries to rescue it, will that increase or decrease the chance of injuring the cat? #3 What are the chances that the human rescuer will be injured?
I can’t find statistic for #1 yet, but the ASPCA says “It is a misconception that cats won’t be injured if they fall from one- or two-story buildings. They may actually be at greater risk for injury when falling shorter distances than by falling from mid-range or higher altitudes. Shorter distances do not give them enough time to adjust their body posture to fall correctly.” Cat Care | Grooming | Nutrition | Disease | Behavior | ASPCA
Also, Cecil’s column on cats falling from great heights quotes a study from 1987 which talks about a 90% survival rates of cats who fall from greater than 7 stories, which conversely implies that 10% died. And it also says that cats are more likely to survive falling from great heights than medium heights, so we can infer than MORE THAN 10% of cats will die when falling from heights of LESS than 7 stories. However, it’s worth noting that this study suffers from selection bias because it only included cats who were taken to the vet. Do cats always land unharmed on their feet, no matter how far they fall? - The Straight Dope
As for #3, the CDC says that 3.5 humans per 100,000 population each year are injured in cat-related falls. Unfortunately, it doesn’t discuss fatal falls, only non-fatal ones, and it doesn’t say how many of those injured humans were specifically trying to “rescue” the cat from a tree. The injury rate is more than double for women vs. men, at 4.9 and 2.0, respectively. Injury rates are much higher for people over 75. Possible conclusion: if a young man sees an old woman trying to rescue a cat, he should intervene and rescue the cat himself, not because the cat needs rescuing, but to spare the old woman from injuring herself while attempting the rescue. Nonfatal Fall-Related Injuries Associated with Dogs and Cats --- United States, 2001--2006
And finally we would need to ask ourselves if it’s worth risking injury or death of a human in order to avoid injury or death of a cat. I submit that this depends on many factors, such as how strong the emotional tie is between the human and the cat. But remember that many people who perform heroic acts will often later describe having felt that they simply could NOT stand by and do nothing but felt compelled to take some action. The hypothetical pain of possibly being injured may be insignificant compared to the very real emotional pain of standing by helplessly.
What I wonder is if they climb down head first or backwards (head up).
I bet going down head first would be really hard for a cat and it would fall eventually. I would spectulate cats that know how to go down backwards probably have an easier time.
I question one of the theories that keeps coming up - that the lack of skeletons in trees is a sign that cats don’t die up there. Why would a dead cat be a stable thing in a tree? Why wouldn’t it fall relatively quickly, and be thought of as a dead cat on the ground…soon to be cleaned up by someone?
Already referenced, and as already mentioned, that suffers from multiple selection biases. A cat that lands just fine and walks away won’t be taken to the vet, and neither will a cat that dies instantly.
Also, there’s a difference between falls and jumps. Most of the time when a cat gets injured in a fall, it’s because it doesn’t have enough time to get into the proper position. But when a cat deliberately jumps, it’s never out of the proper position to begin with.
IMO the correct interpretation is that old women trip over cats in their homes & fall down more often than men do. The difference between men’s & women’s accident rates is much more about the two groups’ rates of cat ownership rather than their fall-avoidance skills.
For the elderly having a small pet of any kind is actually rather dangerous. There are offsetting companionship values, but being crippled or bed-ridden for the remaining months of your life is all too common after tripping over Fluffy.
We tried to and missed badly. Not all plans work as well as a movie script. We really wanted to save that cat and brought at all resources to make it happen but it still didn’t work as planned (at least in this universe).
Thank you! That explains how squirrels can go up and down trees at crazy speeds.
Now all we have to do is train all cats to know they have to go down trees tail first. Whenever I see cats climb they always jump down, but I rarely see them climb that high. Without experience they probably assume they can always jump down and don’t know the tricks to climbing.
It wasn’t his fault. Believe me, cats can really scream when they are in extreme distress, It is a very distinctive and terrifying sound that demands that you try to do anything to save them. Plans don’t always work of course but cats can get lots of resources involved when they get into a situation they can’t get out of on their own.
She wasn’t ever coming down on her own. She had every opportunity for it and still couldn’t do it. She was going to make 60 foot fall sooner or later no matter what, We tried to save her and failed.
I have a cat, name of Kevin, who got stuck up a Douglas fir tree a few years ago. The cat was about 60 feet up, it was winter and I left him for a couple of days, hoping he’d come down on his own. I coaxed with tuna, sardines, everything I could think of. There was no hose available – frozen. Finally, after he barely survived a sub-zero night, I remembered I knew someone who could climb that tree (logger).
We’d just had a terrible snow and ice storm and if the guy didn’t have a duelie, he’d have never made it up to my place. He came out, climbed the tree and the cat did exactly as he predicted it would – climbed higher. After about an hour, the cat did the next thing he predicted it would – jumped in an attempt to get to an adjacent tree. Cat fell, broke his fall 3 times on branches on the way down, landed on the ground right side up and took off like a shot.
As I paid the $300 my logger had indicated he would charge me to come out and engage in this little caper, I asked him about that old saw about not finding cat skeletons in trees. “Oh, yeah,” he said, as he tucked my check into his breast pocket. “I’ve found quite a few of them. They really do get stuck and can’t get back down.”
My $300 cat showed up a week later, fine as frog’s hair. I thought he was cured of tree-climbing, but just this evening I saw him race partly up another Doug fir. He’s on his own this time if he gets stuck.
They can certainly get into other places where they need rescuing. I had a cat that I let roam outside (bad catowner!!). One day, she didn’t come back when I called her in the evening.
Next day, no cat. After work, still no cat.
I wandered around the neighborhood calling for her, and finally spotted her on the roof of the building behind mine - a two-story garden apartment building. As best I could tell, she’d run up a nearby tree, and for some reason hopped onto the roof. She was unable to get back onto the tree - I assume she was afraid to try.
Fire department was uninterested in helping, and I certainly had no 2-story-plus ladder handy. I wound up going to the second floor of the building, knocking on a stranger’s door, and asking if I could get out on their balcony. The resident was very helpful, let me use her chair, even provided me with some chicken guts to help tempt the cat.
Idiot cat, of course, came over to me after some persuasion, but was NOT happy when I grabbed her to pull her down. In fact she got one leg caught in the gutter and I had to let her go or risk breaking her leg, then begin the whole thing over again (no leg/gutter that time).
All in all, I’m fairly sure she’d have died up there if we had no managed to coax her down.
Well he probably would have hit his roof on the way down, and maybe he would have stuck there. Which come to think of it is another thing that cat could have done (and how she probably got up there to begin with).
But yeah. I am ashamed to have even taken part in this screamingly dangerous rescue of a delusional hell-cat, who went on to die only a couple of years later of something unrelated to falls.
Many a cat in a tree is there as a direct result of long, hard work by a dedicated dog, ever the friend of man. Surely the dog deserves his achievement.
Earlier this month a friend spotted a cat that was about 50 feet up a tree for at least a couple days. As bob++ mentioned, the fire service wasn’t interested. Fortunately, a friend of ours (Gary) is a tree surgeon. She called him and the RSPCA. The RSPCA guy provided one of those animal lasso things and a carrier. Gary climbs up to the branch where the cat is, sets his safety ropes, then pulls up the lasso and carrier. He managed to safely lasso the cat around the chest and stuff it in the carrier before abseiling down. No charge, just a couple pints down the pub. It was too bad nobody thought to take pictures or video, it would have been a great addition to his company website.
