When food won’t shake a cat’s tree
Plenty of felines were unfortunate enough to suffer the indignity of being stuck up a tree in 2020.
Between January 1 and October 12 last year, Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) responded to 264 callouts involving cats. Of those, 134 incidents involved trees.
The highest number of required rescues was in the Far North, from Counties Manukau to the top of the island, where Fenz responded to 113 incidents involving cats, 53 of which involved trees.
The area from eastern Waikato to the bottom of the Central Lakes/ Taupo¯ region was responsible for 43 incidents, with 22 also involving trees. Taranaki to Wellington reported 50 cat callouts, including 28 that involved trees.
The top half of the South Island, including the West Coast and South Canterbury, reported 42 cat incidents, 22 of them also involving trees, and the rest of the South Island had 16 cat incidents, nine of which involved trees.
Sometimes calling in reinforcements was the only way. In July, a Ha¯wera volunteer firefighter and a box of cat biscuits lured amoggy down from a palm tree, where it had been stuck 5 metres up for two days.
SPCA senior communications co-ordinator Sarah Hitchings said it was never fun for the cats, or their owners, when this happened.
‘‘Cats generally come down from trees themselves. But if they are up there for a long time, an owner might try coaxing them down with food.’’
Contacting your local fire brigade was an option, she said, or a climbing arborist, ‘‘as they are skilled tree climbers and have the specialised skill and equipment without causing damage to the tree’’.
Karen Wilson, when she lived in Island Bay, had a 10-kilogram cat who ‘‘wasn’t a great climber’’.
‘‘He managed to get himself stuck up a tree in the front garden and even food couldn’t coax him down.
‘‘I rang the fire department and a fire truck with four firefighters arrived to help. They sprayed Tigs with some water, and he finally came scrambling down.
‘‘I was very relieved. The next day I dropped a bouquet of flowers and a huge box of biscuits off at the fire station.’’