Thread: A bit of a shock

A few years ago we had a male MC kitten that was quite determined to get outside. The first several times he got out, the entire family had to chase him around the yard trying to get him in (once at night, in the dark). I think around the second time he got out, he shot straight up a tree, about 12-15' up, then walked out on a branch. We were all standing around horrified. After a few minutes it became clear he had no idea how to get down, so I went to get an extension ladder to try to get him down. As I was coming with the ladder, though, he decided he had had enough and launched himself off the branch toward the ground. We assumed the worst, but he simply landed and continued running around the yard with us chasing him. A real wild child. Unfortunately, he died of a rather rare problem at age two (intussusception).

Some cats definitely are not as good as others at getting down. Because of the way their nails curve, they cannot come down frontwards, so they either need to have branches to work their way down, or they need to learn to shimmy down backwards (this is what many do not seem to get).