I believe that, on occasions, people can make things worse. Not always. It can be better to leave a cat to her own devices and to let her make her way down a tree, in her own time. I have never read about a cat being killed or injured from falling out of a tree when trying to get down of her own accord. Have you? Please leave a comment if you have.
If you were a cat 25 feet up a tree, having fun but a little uncertain about how to get down, would you begin a descent if on the ground there was a melee of people and lots of noise?
I wonder sometimes if kind-hearted and good-natured people with the best will in the world make matters worse when they try and coax and cajole a cat from a tree.
Look at this picture of cops with a blanket:
If you were a cat would you jump into it! LOL. I am being facetious but making a point.
In this instance, Jimbo was high up a tree in Harlem, NY. His owner, Lincoln Francis was scared for her safety (she’s female despite the name). He could see her being hurt in a fall. Neighbors helped out.
Marie Branch reported it to ASPCA and animal control she said, but they weren’t interested.
The cops stepped up to the mark and turned up rapidly. That was nice of them. It must have been a public relations exercise for the police or they were bored. Am I being cynical?
A police officer brought along a cherry picker. I am not sure if this means a mobile, powered platform or a long pole (probably the latter) but Jimbo fell 30 feet into a sheet held by the cops.
Okay, she was forced down. Good work. Entertainment for all! I wonder, though, if she’d have come down of her own accord if left alone and given the time.
Domestic cats are great survivors (nine lives remember) and super-athletic. She’d have shimmied back down in reverse using her claws to hang on and jumped the last ten feet.
Just a thought.
One last point and I am not being critical. What was a cat doing wandering around this paved and concreted urban area? It looks unsuitable for an outdoor cat.
Source: Cat rescued in Harlem after residents say nobody would help – NY Daily News
I think you are spot on Dee. Most cats will come down in time. But we understandably panic because to us the cat is in a high, dangerous place. But to a cat it is not dangerous and it does not look high. Cats have a head for heights. Most people are scared of heights. I think we need to act but less like headless chickens.
I can hardly believe that police would show up to assist the descent of a cat. There was a time when the fire departments would be helpful in that area but not today.
From my experience, it took many years before I learned that a rare cat needs assistance down from high places. As a youngster of 8 and, even, through my 30’s, I would panic over situations like this. I risked breaking my neck a hundred times climbing trees and rooftops. My actions either drove them further to an even higher place or I would see them happily chasing a lizard on the ground while I was still in peril.
It takes a lot of experiences to know when there is real danger and when there is not and when your intervention is necessary.
It can be an irresistible situation to just walk away, and let the cat figure it out. I remember a couple of occasions when my cats have gotten onto a rooftop, and I climbed up to get them. I’ve never had a cat get up in a tree that was so high I was concerned they couldn’t get down.
We do hear of cats getting hurt from falls, which may have been from slipping or even jumping from an unsafe distance.
It was nice of the cops to help out, but did they really expect the cat to jump into a safety net? So many cops coming to the aid of one cat seems highly unlikely, except it would momentarily be good PR, in the face of the reality of so much police brutality on vulnerable populations.
A cherry picker is usually what’s attached to trucks that utility workers use. It’s a mechanized bucket that holds a person, so they don’t have to climb a pole.