I have an undersized, underintelligent year our cat that I rescued from the wild. She is is so underintellighent that she really is "special" if you know what I mean. She has NO instincts. She can not even figure out the doggy door, even after watching the other cat and dog use it a million times. She tore a hole in a window screen and uses that.
Four times now we have managed to rescue her from trees (she can get up, but not down) Once we had to cut the tree down with her in it. We thought she would get hungry and come down on her own the first time, but more than 48 hours later she was still there crying. We could reach her with a ladder and line then.
We couldn't understand why she kept ending up in trees until this morning when we saw one of the neighbors barn cats chase her up there. (even their cat's are bullies).
Does ANYBODY have ideas how to get her down?
We've tried spreading catfood on the trees, we have tried the garden hose. Fire departments don't really rescue cats and the tree guy wants $200 to go up and get her. People keep reassuring me that they have never found a skeleton of a cat in a tree, but this idiot may be the first.
Any ideas how to get cat out of tree
I have always climbed up and dragged them down; I don't know any other sure technique.
I had a cat like that... neighbors tom cat use to chase him & his sister up the tree, he could not get down for anything. I climbed up many a tree on metal ladders during thunderstorms to save him. I left him for 2 days one time trying to get him to come down... nothing but howling from him. I never could stop him from going up the tree when they chased him. If you figure out a better way... i'd like to know!
call the fire dept and see if they will use a ladder to get her or a tree service that uses climbers. I don't know what they would charge you
Ours here wont' do that anymore. The Fire Department issues a statement a few years ago that they are for emergencies only. Said they were putting peoples lives at risk due to being on a non emergency call and not able to respond in a timely manner to emergency calls. They will not respond to cats in a tree call & if you call for something else but that's the real reason you called you will be fined. I personally can't see where it makes much difference when each station has more than one truck.. several firefighters and rarely (once or twice a year) is there a 5 alarm fire that requires all firefighters in the area to respond. They are going to respond anyways when that nice little old lady falls out of the tree trying to climb up and get her kitty cat, breaking a hip in the process when they could have saved the tax payers money trying to take her to the ER and just gotten the cat out of the tree for her. :)
Tree services here would laugh at you then charge you min $150 just for coming out.
Jylgaskin ; was rereading your original post.. just tell those people they don't' find the skeleton's in the tree bc the wind blows them down to the ground. I have been told that many times but there is no way I'd leave my poor cat in the tree during a storm. He was terrified of thunder. That still wasn't enough to send him down the tree.. his fear of heights was even worse! Neighbors would stand on their porch and laugh at me.
Here is something I found online other than what you've tried...
"Take a laundry basket and a length of rope. Tie a small weight to one end of the rope and swing it up AWAY from where the cat is perched, but close enough she can reach it. Once you have snagged the rope around the branch and lowered it down, put some bedding and food in the laundry basket. Tie the rope to the basket and pull it up so it rests quite close to her. Then tie off the end. When she goes to get in the basket, gently lower her down until someone can snag her."
"Sprinkle a lot of birdseed on the ground under the tree. Cover the area with it. I am not talking a small amount. You want to carpet the ground below with birdseed. I used this trick, when a feral cat was high in one of our trees. We left and watched out the window, and ten minutes later the birds were feasting, and here comes Cleo creeping down the tree! The cat’s prey response is pretty powerful."
The nearest branch to the cat is nearly 40 feet up. I can't throw that far. Ieven tried the pressure washer to get some water to her, but it dosen't reach either.
Might want to try the birdseed trick?
She isn't a hunter and I have offered all her favorite stinky foods.
The question now is how far do I go for this cat. We have already sacrificed a beautiful tree last time. How many trees do you cut down? If we call the tree guy back, it will mean that there is another bill I can't pay this month.
It was a rescued kitten from the wild that was dying when I found it. Maybe it was just supposed to die then and I interfeared with Karma or whatever forces of nature are out there. It's just evening out now.
I should have looked at it like any other wild animal I rescue. You don't keep the ones alive that can't make it on their own. You give them merciful and peaceful passings so they do not suffer later. The biggest mistake I made was getting emotionally attached. I need to keep my emotions out of this.
I've heard that karma theory before. People in India will walk over a dying infant in the road thinking that it was that child's past life that has caused it's present problem. Quite different than the Christian response should be.
I'm sorry about your terrible dilemna. Has the cat come down from the tree?
I would probably leave it, Jyl. I remember once rescuing a young yellow-billed cuckoo from a cat. I called up the Audubon Society to see what I should do with it and I was advised to put it in a tree and leave it. The person said that nature separates the wheat from the chaff and if the bird doesn't survive it was chaff. Because it was a yellow-billed cuckoo rather than something obnoxious like a starling or a brownheaded cowbird, I took some care with it before releasing it, but it was still a good lesson.
Jyl, have you contacted local rescue groups? Sometimes they have resources "regular" people don't. Or, if there's a local TV station with a "problem solver" program, they will take on lots of different things, and often get the job done. You might even try the PR divisions of the phone or electric company, they have cherry pickers which might be used to get the cat.
good luck
Cat is still in tree, We discovered that we cannot get any sort of truck close enough to reach. I pulled up a crate with moist food in it hoping she would go the three feet to get it. She hasn't. It is up to her now.
Cat is down and alive. He hooked with with 40 feet of conduit and a noose around it's paw. Now the delimia is how to keep it in the house forever when we have doggy doors and a million things coming and going.
How about keeping the claws really short to prevent climbing?
maybe try an electronic door -> http://www.smarthome.com/6106/Ani-Mate-202W-254W-Electromagnetic-Cat-Door/p.aspx
And congratz on getting it down out of the tree. Hopefully this episode will keep it out of the tree.
This message was edited Aug 17, 2011 6:39 PM
Thank goodness the cat's down. One can only imagine how frightened she was. Let's all pray that the lesson was learned.
I thoought about declawing, even though I don't believe it ever declawing a cat, but if it is the only option to keep it alive...I don't know. A lot depends on expense. I am still feeding 4 fawns to the tune of 50 bucks a week and it has strained us.
You'd think she would have learned last time when we cut the tree down with her in it.
She probably just thought she had chosen the wrong tree.
It doesn't sound as though she's thinking when she races up those trees, Jyl.
Yes, I had thought of suggesting having her declawed, too. They can still climb with their back paws, but I don't think as high or as easily.
Oh, good news:)
Even 4paw declawed cats can climb well enough to get up any tree I have. Don't waste the money or mutilate the cat, it won't stop her:(. I speak from experience *G*. It isn't easy to "housebreak" an outdoor cat, but it can be done. I found that I need to keep as many doors between the cat and "outside" as possible. Make sure all the humans are on board, (they are far more difficult to manage than the cat). You will learn to check around you before you open doors that may lead to trouble, because they are lightning fast. I have learned to keep anything they can hide behind away from the outside doors, although sometimes it just takes a shadow....
If you can, give her a safe room, with delicious food, and a nice window to watch from. And a door that closes. If possible, keep her in there during the busy parts of the day, when there's lots of traffic and people coming or going.
I have two that had to be confined because of their inordinate fondness for the house across the street. After one was hit, they came inside. On top of wanting out, they were pretty feral as well, dropped off by their mothers as halfgrown kittens. They're pretty well adjusted now, and only occasionally sit by the screen door and cry.
Good luck...
JUST FYI - An option to declawing is the claw covers. They are little colorful rubber covers that you glue on their claws. They don't care that they are there and they cannot claw your furniture. They glue on with non toxic glue that comes with them. We used them on a cat we had some years ago because she wanted to claw the furniture. We thought she might not like them, but once they were on her, she forgot all about them and it didn't bother her any. The indoor cat we have now was a rescue and she was already declawed when we got her.
Given her demonstrable lack of self-preservation instincts, I agree with others that making her an indoor only cat is the way to go if at all possible. I don't think declawing will prevent her from going up trees and is a very painful procedure. Thanks for taking the special needs baby!
How many days was she up there?
four freeking days.
OMG. I would have died of heart failure had I been in the same position.