Cat caught in a tree

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I often figured it was just a myth that cats get caught in trees. Heck if they know how to climb up a tree they should be able to climb down right?

Lately I wondered if maybe it is actually true. We have started letting the kittens outside and ever so often they would run up a tree. They would only go so far and then stop. From this place they would look around as if trying to figure out where to go next. Usually they aren’t so high up that they can’t just turn around and jump.

Seeing this I understood how a cat could get caught in a tree. They can run and climb up no problem but going backwards isn’t so easy.

I watched Star (female cat) today and she seemed to get the hang of climbing down backwards.

Then Mojo went running up the tree much faster than previous and went quite a bit higher as well. Then he stopped and looked around. He looked around some more as if trying to figure out how to go down. He found a branch to walk out onto. He walked back and forth on this branch. He kept looking at us down below. He’d walk to the trunk of the tree and then walk back out on the limb.

I now completely understood how they do get caught in a tree. He looked pretty caught to me. He would bend over on the branch as if contemplating jumping down. It was too high. He let out a little meow (by this time he had been up there for about 10 minutes). We watched and waited. For a moment our attention was towards Star and he took the plunge. He must have jumped from the branch (a good 12 feet off the ground).

He walked away unscathed and I am curious how he will be around trees now. Has he learned anything? I haven’t noticed the cats to be terribly quick to learn what is and what isn’t acceptable so we shall see. Hopefully he’ll learn the trick of walking backwards down a tree as well before he goes storming up towards the top again…

UPDATE: Well he did it again. He found himself up on that high branch again and spend a while walking back and forth and meowing in a pitiful sort of way. Finally PM and I went and got the ladder and I helped Mojo down from the tree. Ya think he would learn not to go so high if he doesn’t know how to get down. Oh well the cats sure do have fun running around and they are pretty darn good at climbing trees as well.

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