Cat loving people, help me with a reality check

I have a visitor cat. He is very smart. He can jump from the floor at least 5 feet with ease. and gets down off a 6 foot cabinet at his home. I would not be concerned. Placing netting on the stair well would be dangerous because they my get tangled in the net. That is how the fishermen catch fish. Stay away from the net. you will be ok

 

Myrna Milani presents MMilani.com - Integrating the Human-Animal Bond, Animal Health, and Behavior

You might consult with this person to see what her take is.
Give your girls something to read anyway.

 

I agree with the previous posts. I've had cats for years; they are very smart! I would NOT use the netting as previous post said; could get tangled in it.

BTW, Myrna Milani is a dear friend and mentor; I worked with her years ago.

 

Cats are smart, they might (sorry, will) stick their heads through the railing to have a look, but they will not jump, stumple or fall through the gaps. :thumb:

 

No, don't block the ballasters. As others have said, putting a net there would be more dangerous (crazy kitties might even try to climb the net and walk along the railing!).

How old are the kittens? You may want to watch for them chewing on wires. Mine tried that for awhile so we put covers on them and bitter apple to discourage her. Thankfully, she grew out of it.

1. Probably the cats feet, but then you'll get butter and bits of bread spread around the house as the cat goes running and rubbing everything. I recommend you don't try this at home!
2. Yes, he is still wrong!

ps. I like the name Chili Pepper. It was my kitten's first toy and she loved it.

 

My cat Mia has fallen off the mantle piece above the fireplace twice but that's because it's fairly narrow and she gets up there and rolls around. Pretty surprising because she's a very athletic cat. Both times she landed on her feet and the only injury was her pride. I don't think they'd be likely to do that on the stairs you described.

Yep, they always land on their feet. They always know where down is so you'd get butter on the floor. There's an animal planet video that explains why but it would take me too long to search up. So don't put up anything that would screw up their ability to detect the ground.

 

I agree with all of the above.. kitties and netting/screens don't mix. You'll be inviting a whole other host of issues unnecessarily. I would only worry about stairs for brand new fragile little stumbly kittens that haven't yet mastered going up and down. If they are beyond that stage, they are pretty much made of rubber. My 3 cats had some crazy spills in their time, and all resulted in a slow strut away from the scene and an "I meant to do that" expression.

 

As a long time cat housemate, I don't believe the net is at all necessary to protect the cats. It may protect whatever they try to push off the stairs though, but the tangling hazard may not be worth it.

Your other questions:
(1) Cat claws are strong enough to remain embedded in your arm, preventing the cat from dropping at all;
(2) Yes.

 

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.

 

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

Logic is probably futile in this instance.

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?

Crazy is irrelevant in this instance.

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

Wrong is irrelevant in this instance.

 

Yes

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

 

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

 

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.....

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.)