Cat loving people, help me with a reality check

[Rae Vynn]

Our family had a kitten that launched himself from the highest point of the stairs, through the banister, and hit the floor.

He was fine.

Cats will do weird things. Expect it.

[dogfriend]

Originally Posted by NoMoShocks

So, here is the thing. During their house training, we kept them in a spare bedroom. Their training has gone very well, and they are ready to graduate to haveing run of the house, but my wife and daughter say I need to get some kind of net or screen to fill the gaps beteen the ballastes of the stair railing so the cats don't stumble over the edge and kill themselves.

This is natural selection. The smart survive, the less "smart" are weeded out. Who are we to mess with natural selection?

Originally Posted by NoMoShocks

I have been telling my wife this will be unnecessary because the cats know instinctively not to throw themselves into the great abyss that is the stairwell to the basement. I'm saying "You bought them a climbing structure on purpose where they can sit on a perch 5 feet above the floor!" The stairwell is only a few more feet."

Logic is probably futile in this instance.

Originally Posted by NoMoShocks

IMHO, cats are born to climb and the risk of them stumbling and falling a long distance and getting seriously hurt i.e. trip to the vet, would be extreemly low.

We have never had to take our cat to the vet because she fell off of something. Our emergency visits were for:

1. Ate poisonous (to cats) plant. Ok after $250 visit.

2. Got bit by another cat and absessed. Ok after $250 visit + antibiotics.

3. GF accidentally nicked chin during ill advised attempt at home grooming and absessed. Ok after $250 visit + antibiotics.

Notice any pattern?

Originally Posted by NoMoShocks

Am I crazy, or not. If any PriusChat cat lovers or cat experts have had a cat fall and hurt themselves bad enough to be permanently hurt or killed, please tell me about it and make me a responsible cat owner's husband.

Crazy is irrelevant in this instance.

Originally Posted by NoMoShocks

1. If you stap a slice of buttered bread, butter side up on a cat's back, and drop the cat, what will land on the floor, cat's feet or buttered side of the bread?

You need to perform this experiment 100 times and log the results to know for sure.

Originally Posted by NoMoShocks

2. If a man says something in a forrest, and there is no woman around to hear, is he still wrong?

Wrong is irrelevant in this instance.

[jayman]

Originally Posted by dogfriend

Notice any pattern?

Yes

Originally Posted by dogfriend

Wrong is irrelevant in this instance.

[Sound of Jayman on all fours, kissing the carpet, thankful he is still happily single]

[lorraine]

Originally Posted by NoMoShocks

I like cats a little, but am not the type of person who simply must have cats to be happy. I like to hold them, watch them play, and hear them purr, but if I am the one who has to clean the litter box, or if they won't use the litter box, I could wait until I visit someone else with cats and be fine for weeks, months, years at a time.

My wife and daughter wanted to get a couple kittens. I was a little reluctant, concerned about who will take care of them if we want to go somewhere, but if she and she aren't happy, nobody is happy, so I am happy to say that my wife and daughter adopted Tommy and Chili Pepper. The ladies give them the frequent attention that they deserve, and I enjoy them very much, every 4-6 days.

So, here is the thing. During their house training, we kept them in a spare bedroom. Their training has gone very well, and they are ready to graduate to haveing run of the house, but my wife and daughter say I need to get some kind of net or screen to fill the gaps beteen the ballastes of the stair railing so the cats don't stumble over the edge and kill themselves.

I have been telling my wife this will be unnecessary because the cats know instinctively not to throw themselves into the great abyss that is the stairwell to the basement. I'm saying "You bought them a climbing structure on purpose where they can sit on a perch 5 feet above the floor!" The stairwell is only a few more feet."

IMHO, cats are born to climb and the risk of them stumbling and falling a long distance and getting seriously hurt i.e. trip to the vet, would be extreemly low.

Am I crazy, or not. If any PriusChat cat lovers or cat experts have had a cat fall and hurt themselves bad enough to be permanently hurt or killed, please tell me about it and make me a responsible cat owner's husband.

While we are at it, we might as well address these too:

1. If you stap a slice of buttered bread, butter side up on a cat's back, and drop the cat, what will land on the floor, cat's feet or buttered side of the bread?

2. If a man says something in a forrest, and there is no woman around to hear, is he still wrong?

No need to worry about the cats. Their instincts are so honed they can survive almost anything.

#2) Yes he is still wrong.

My Prius 2010 Pk 3 silver. Two cats - sammie and Jodi

[NoMoShocks]

Thank you eveyone for helping me know I am basically correct and to realize that convincing others is not worth the efforts. Pointing out the dangers of chocking on a net is my best chance to negotiate my way out of this. For the record, I was alos thinking about some type of wooden lattic or rabbit cage wire, and didn't really put any thought into the phrase "net or screen". The net I was picturing would be something like the heavy oragne plastic netting they use to block off areas or a ski resourt or construction site, but I was mostly thinking what a useless bother or another honey-do. My mother-in law was over last night. She is 84 and I stupidly thought she would have the sense to agree with me after watching cats for 84 years, but it sounds as though she probably was the instigator of the idea in the first place. Her response was that she wouldn't take a chance of letting the cats be able to fall through the ballisters.

[The Electric Me]

Let me take a slightly different approach to this debate.

If we recognize that cat's are complex creatures and likely exhibit any number of behaviors at any age, then we should accept that while counter intuitive to believe that they would purposely throw themselves into an abyss it is possible, especially with young cats with little experience outside of a single room.

Cat's, Dogs, Humans have gotten themselves into places, jams you would not believe so in short, relying on "instinct" to keep something from happening is a tenous gamble at best.

You may have a kitten that thinks it's a flying squirrel.

So then my question becomes why not? Why not simply net the railing? Sure, it might be 100% unnecessary. But if this is an arguement and debate now, can you imagine if you are wrong? What if Tommy or Chili Pepper does take a nose dive from the stairwell and suffers any injury real or imagined? You'll never hear the end of it.

I'd just go ahead and net the railing or gaps in the railing with the agreement that it is a temporary thing and will be removed once the cats behaviors are monitored and they become more "house wise".

It might not be necessary, it might not really be the smartest thing to do, but when it comes to family relations it certainly is the wisest.

Now comes the sticker....as you have pointed out Cats love to climb. My real fear would be if you put up netting in any area that the cats might be it could actually be counter productive and endanger the cats. An open gap, a cat might ignore, as simply open space...but a net to climb? Most cats are going to try and climb it. So your best arguement against putting the net up, might be that it actually makes the whole situation more dangerous. ( Climbing up the netting, to reach even a more dangerous top )

I've had lot's of cats and most of them can't resist climbing anything they can climb. Including netting put up for their safety.

Did I just totally flip flop?

I think I did.

What you really need to do is train the cats, they are smart creatures. It shouldn't take too much observation to see how they react to the open spaces in your stair well.

One of my cat's years ago loved to curl up infront of a woodstove that sat in our house. He learned as the fire died down and the woodstove cooled that he could enjoy more warmth by actually curling up ontop of the woodstove...however from time to time his evaluation of how cool the woodstove had become would be wrong. He'd jump ontop of a still very, very hot woodstove and then I'd hear a yowl and a scrambling sound as he tried to levitate himself off the top. Great cat, but not the brightest.....

[biscuit]

That's a good point.. cats do indeed look for new challenges all the time. If you put something up with the idea of protecting them, you may well be inviting more problems as they try to scale whatever material it is.. and they will try.

[Snowbell]

Definitely, no nets _ I agree with many of the other posters here _ I think they could end up being more dangerous than helpful. Why don't you let your wife and daughter read some of the replies here? ... (or is that an invasion on your space?).

For the most part cats are quite smart and tend to be quick learners. And are generally very well-balanced.

I do have 2 older cats that used to like to walk back and forth across the top of an open door_or else perch on the top of a sliding shower door. When the youngest was a kitten I came home one day to find him in some kind of distress hiding under the bed. I brought him to the vet, and the x-rays showed a hairline fracture in his rear leg. So, Aja was was fitted with a cast that stayed on for a few weeks. I couldn't figure out what could have happened to him until ... I was looking for a silk shirt that was hanging on the back of an open closet door ... and when I saw the claw rip marks in the shirt ... it all became apparent. Aja must have been on top of the door when he lost his balance, clawed up my shirt on the way down, broke his leg and hid under the bed. LOL. Well he recovered beautifully and continued his adventures in high places until he was 7-8 years old He's 13 now and mellowed out some. The highest place he goes now is on top of the TV; it's warm up there when it's on.

p.s. ...and he learned that climbing behavior from the older 5 year old cat at the time.

[fuzzy1]

Another question -- are the stairs carpeted, or do they have a hard surface?

On the former, if they have a few 'accidents' at the edge during the learning process, they are likely to grab the carpet just in time before going over the edge. On hardwood, that won't work.

As they grow up, their jumping distance can become considerable. Plenty of adult cats go up and over the 6 foot fence in my back yard many times per day.

[Prius101]

Also, do you have curtains on your windows? This can also lead to a curious cat having an 'adventure' that will lead to hunting down a crying cat..... (if you must have curtains, be sure they are the substantial foam backed ones.. We now have just blinds in the windows.)