Angry cat rescued

Ya gotta be a kitty man as they say. In other words it helps to understand and appreciate cat behavior. If you don't like cats or get along with cats I wouldn't bother trying to rescue one.

I did my first cat rescue a month ago or so. Night climb, backyard Norway Maple up 35-40 ft.. I was armed with an open can of cat food, rescue bag and my leather welding gloves. When I was within 10 feet the cat was pacing on the limb and had that "pat me and pick me up" look. When I reached the cat it tried to jump in my lap, I held it back with one hand, dropped my gloves and cat food to the ground. Then I put the cat on my lap and descended one hand on the hitch, other on the cat. The last 10 feet to the ground I gripped the cat firmly on the head with my hand over its face and pinned its body with my forearm. Reason is I knew if it saw the ground it would kick off and scratch me. You can temporarily "paralyze" a cat with a firm head grab/cover the eyes, learned that from watching my vet examine my cat. By the time he started to squirm I was on the ground and tossed him free.
-moss
 
I am listed on Dan Krause's cat rescue website. I got a call yesterday from a frantic cat owner. Kitty was in a norway maple about 30 feet up. As I climbed so did the cat. At the end we're at 45 feet, cat is on 1" branch. Tied off the branch with the tail of my climbing line. Cut the branch and lowered it to the ground. At about 8 feet the cat jumped down on his own. Figured cat had such a death grip on the branch he could hold on for the ride down.
Corey
 
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My theory, and it's just a guess, is that some cats cannot walk or move backward. If they can't move backward, they can't use their claws to cling to the tree. Cats are not naturally arboreal, they're ground animals. They can climb but it ain't natural.

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True... Cats that have been hit by a car have lost most of the sharp tips of their claws (scratching over the pavement).
There probably was still enough claw there to get into the tree but not enough to get down in a comfortable way.

One remark to rest the minds of potential cat rescuers.
It's always better to bring the cat down 'by hand', but when a cat starts to learn how to fly from the tip of a branch, don't worry.
All thing have a terminal velocity. The terminal velocity of a cat is not fast enough to critically harm, or even worse, kill it.
Jelte and I have seen some cats hit the tarmac from 60+ feet. No sweet sight I can tell you that, but all survived without internal injury.
 
Wolter,

I'll have to question that a cat's terminal velocity will always prevent it from injury. Same thing as you or I may be able to jump out of a tree from 8' and feel no worse for wear, but take your general population and have them come out from 8' and I'll bet you a lot will be okay, and some will have injuries.

Animals are naturally going to try to hide injury, as a survival instinct.

Internal injury would be even harder to detect than a musculo-skeletal injury, which could manifest itself in a limb or resistance to voluntary weight-bearing. A bruised liver or spleen will not have the same manifestations as a burst organ, necessarily.

A fluffy, lightweight cat will have a much different terminal velocity than a heavier, sleek-coated cat.

I'm just saying that people should not be unconcerned about flying cats.
 
OK, OK. You are probably right there. A Norwegian forest cat or a European short hair will probably be better of than this one
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Wolter,

I'll have to question that a cat's terminal velocity will always prevent it from injury.

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Data from a New York City veterinary hospital showed that cats that fell from 3-4 stories to pavement usually died as a result of the injuries. Above a certain height, I think it's 8-10 stories the cat has enough time to reach terminal velocity. At that point the cat relaxes and takes an optimal flattened horizontal body position with legs stretched out. Before ground impact they slow down quite a bit less than expected terminal velocity. Falling from a 30 story high balcony a cat has a much higher chance of survival than from three stories. Typical injury from 25-30 stories is broken front legs and/or jaw without the crushing internal injuries that cause fatality.

This is all from memory reading an article a few years ago, you should be able to find a reference online if you're interested in more info.
-moss
 
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Mabey a glove sewn to some type of bag so you could grab them and then turn the bag inside out.
Wahlah?

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Wahlah

check your spelling

I was corrected for spelling it like that on one of my videos
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Damn tree guys
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