Rescue - the cat is safe and a celebrity now

[fdiron]

If the cat falls out of the tree and lands on its feet, it will be ok.  Heres my reasoning-  When the cat hits the ground, I assume the impact will about 40 Gs.  Cats have 4 legs.  Thats only 10 Gs per leg.  Humans can survive up to 40 Gs (for about 1/1000th of a second).  Cat will live (unless it lands on its head).

[Kieran]

Leave the damn cat alone....he'll come down. When's the last time you saw a cat skeleton in a tree?

This was stolen!

Funny thing, I related almost an identical story a few weeks ago somewhere here on the BBS. I used rocks, sticks, climbed atop my wife's van and reached with a pruner, BB gun- nothing worked. The cat eventually came down on its own.

And yes, I really did use that line on my daughter.  

[midnight Target]

Unintentional really Keiran. I know I heard it somewhere. Mea culpa.

[Vulcan]

An Ostwind would get it down

 

[K West]

Do I detect mockery at my idea! I'll have you know that concentrated little ball of dogbait will love it. For it will be warm!!

 Well. If the fire safety ordinance in your town forbids any such thing then stare the puss right in the eyes and ask if it knows what cat origami is.

 Westy

 

(j/k... kinda ...of course <G> )

[ 01-08-2002: Message edited by: O'Westy ]

[AKIron]

Originally posted by SWulfe:
Cat's always land on their feet.    
-SW

Reminds me of something I read a while back. Someone invented perpetual motion machine: cat with buttered toast (butter side up) tied to it's back and dropped from 5 feet. Just spins, never touches the ground.
 

[Tac]

fdiron, that would still be 40'gs for the cat's neck and backbone.

*SNAP*

[Dinger]

really, if you've never been a bored teenager with a willing kitten, you wouldn't know that it is an impressive animal, capable of landing on its feet regardless of the situation it's thrown into.  Now, I never did anything that would hurt the animal, and 50-foot drop does sound threatening, but as long as its tail is unobstructed (the captain and QB of the Bonn H.S. football team asserted the "tied tail" experiment results, so don't pin that on me), it will land on its four shock-absorbing feet.
Will it be enough? I dunno. Kitty frostbite is pretty rough though.
<S> Hangtime for a violent and yet somehow noble solution.

[texace]

LOL! AKIron...that sounds true...

[Kratzer]

So is the cat still up the tree, miko?

The blanket and knocking the cat out of the tree seems like the best bet to me... but it sounds like it might be too far up to knock out...

Hope you get it down  

[Kratzer]

So the tree has no branches until you are very near the cat?  Maybe you can get some pole climbers and a sling, climb up to the branches with some food, and coax the kitty over to you, shove it in your coat, and descend.

[indian]

I once read and email that some scientist did an experiment on cats. They can survive a fall from a building as long as its over 8 floors high or less up to 20 floors. They said it take a cat about eight floors to relise whats happening and get in position to use not only it feet but its rib cage which is very flexable. Got a video of a cat jumping from top of a telephoner pole and surviveing. they can jump a long way.

Dont count on the email be right or anything but the cat will come down. Just leave it alone as long as it thinks its beeing wathed it wont come back. Come to think of it if you ever watch a cat fall its legs are not extended they are kinda out to the sides, maybe for guidance or something.

[miko2d]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

 The cat is not mine but one of my coworkers'. Otherwise I would have felt compelled to hunt down and seriously hurt some of the posters here for the tone of their notes.  

 The cat is still stuck on the tree. He is residing on or above the lowest branches and there are no branches at all until 40+ feet - too high to throw anything or even use a bb-gun.

 The fire department in the area does not rescue tree-bound cats anymore after one firefighter lost an eye in such operation.

 miko

[ 01-09-2002: Message edited by: miko2d ]

[myelo]

They will usually come down on their own within 2-5 days, typically at night when nobody is around. However, a few won’t, especially if they are not used to climbing. Since it’s been 4 days already, I would probably call animal control.

As an aside, injuries caused by falls are well documented in cats. This is quite common in urban areas with apartments and is called high-rise syndrome. While it’s true that cats can survive many falls, critical injuries can occur with falls from heights as low as 2 stories (24 feet). The severity of injuries increases linearly with height up to about 7 stories and then becomes constant, as Indian indicated. This is because cats reach terminal velocity (aprox. 60 mph) after falling about 60 feet. Beyond that, they are no longer accelerating, their vestibular system is no longer stimulated and they assume a relaxed posture. This probably increases the surface area of the deceleration forces, much like skydivers are taught to fall. Nevertheless, serious injuries, including chest and spinal injuries are a real risk with such falls -- so knocking the cat out of the tree is not a good idea.

I hope everything works out well for your kitty.

[miko2d]

The cat is now a celebrity


Rescue

 The cat is finally down!

 miko