rootboy 

Thanks. Yes, she is. A sweetheart. I know what the lady meant by being sketchy. The cat may have been treated badly at some point. She's aloof and no lap cat. Doesn't like to be held. But that's OK by me. She's a cat.

qcpmsame 

These are pics of Carl , my mix that our daughter brought to me in 2003 while I was going through the 16 surgeries.

Non-posed pictures, he is a world class climber upper, but had to be rescued from a 95" pine tree by the local power company in a long reach bucket truck when he discovered he was a non-world class climber downer:


He was supervising our interior painting last night, as usual. He loves to go into the garage with me when I work on bikes or motorcycles. He sits or lays on the seat of my YZ when I am wrenching on it and offers criticisms about my work regularly. Very, very vocal cat! He follows me everywhere and he sleeps between Monica and I at night, purrs like a chainsaw running wide open and snores incessantly.

Bill and Carl

rootboy 

Seeing Carl atop that ladder reminds me of a harrowing adventure this little beast put me through one night.



Long story but, one night we couldn't find her. She had disappeared off the back deck. She is known for being a Houdini escape artist but I finally had constructed and upgraded the Rube Goldberg gate to a point where she couldn't get out. It's 9 p.m. at night. I circled the house with a flashlight. Nothing.
Then I heard a very faint and plaintive meowing. Couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Then it hit me. I backed up and shined my light up to the roof. There she was, on the top most peak, huddled on the ridge cap near the end. I had left my extension ladder leaning up against the house after doing some work on the gutters. She had climbed up the ladder.

The thought occurred to me that she could probably get down by herself. But I doubted it. So, how to retrieve a cat from the roof? I knew I could never hold her in one arm. The lower portion of my roof is an extremely sharp pitch and requires two hands to hold on to the upper lever and carefully inch your way up. Even then, it's extremely spooky. I considered a pillow case. No good. It would have to be something where I could keep both hands free. Hmmm. So, I put on my stickiest sneakers, a heavy pair of elk skin gloves and grabbed my vintage Sacs Millet climbers ruck sack. "This should be interesting", I muttered to myself. Now, I'm not afraid of heights. I've hung off the side of granite rock faces with several hundred foot drops. But that was a long time ago. The drop off the back side of my house is three stories. Daunting for an old guy like me.

I made it to the top level of my roof and shined the light on her. She wailed a plaintive, low volume cry. "Effing Meow...". I inched my way across the ridge on hands and knees. Now, have you ever tried to stuff a cat into a ruck sack? I don't recommend it. I knew it wasn't going to be easy. I tired the gentle method a couple of times. Tail first. No dice. Finally, I grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and jammed her head first into the bag then struggled to get the draw cord tight while she tried to fight her way out. Of course, she didn't realize I was trying to rescue her. Who would? She was scared and ready to claw my eyes out.

Cat in bag, I slung it over my shoulders and crawled along the ridge back to the drop to the lower level, Mei mei kicking and struggling and howling all the while. If it had been a lightweight nylon day pack it would have been shredded. But this was a nice old heavy canvas ruck sack with solid leather bottom.
I finally made it to the top of the ladder and nearly slipped and fell to the deck, what with a bundle of kicking and squirming cat tied to my back. But we made it. I took the bag inside before I opened it. She strolled out, walked five feet and laid down, relaxed and oblivious. My knees were shaking. The look on her face was typical cat. "What?....did I do something wrong"

She had the last laugh...
HA HA!

Drillium Dude 

^ Great story, Scott - thanks for sharing

Here are a couple pics of the one and only time Sacha went outside exploring and decided to climb a tree. She got down by herself in the end, but it wasn't at all pretty or graceful

Hey, no problem, right?



Halp!



DD

rootboy 

Heh heh. Yeah. I considered calling a fireman. Have one that lives right across the street. But ...naw. "Heck, I can do this!" I tell you, if it had been a tree I would have left her. You know how they can use their claws to inch down a tree butt first. But I couldn't see how she's ever negotiate that extension ladder coming down. The thing was nearly vertical when she climbed it! Rascal.

This cat has a somewhat interesting story. Her name, Mei mei, means "younger sister" in Chinese. She was brought in to my wife's Beijing office by a woman who thought they were a shelter. My wife is Asia Regional Director for an animal welfare NGO. The woman found the cat wandering the streets of the big city. A stray cat doesn't last too long in China. Likely to end up in a soup. The young cat immediately took to Grace so, she started the procedures to bring her to the states. Got her a passport and evrything.

I've been around cats all my life. I like them. This cat is one of the most different cats I've ever known. She has at least 8 or ten different vocalizations.
Chimes in at high volume when my old father-in-law speaks loudly in Chinese. We figure she spent some time in a very Re Nau (hot & noisy) kitchen. She nearly climbs my leg on the rare occasions when I bring home a freshly caught striped bass. Fearless, brash and feisty. Mei mei, the wild Chinese cat.

noglider 

When Booger was a kitten, he got stuck up a tree. I got the tallest ladder in the neighborhood and climbed it. I was scared for myself. When I got to the top and reached for him, he went up, beyond my reach.

I went down the street to my neighbor, who was Chief of the fire department. He said the fire department doesn't get kittens out of trees any more. "You never see cat skeletons in trees." So I followed his advice and walked away from the tree so Booger would get the message that he had to solve his problem by himself. He climbed down slowly, front legs first.

rootboy 

Front first? Head down!? That is some feat.

Italuminium

The funny thing is, animals actually do regional accents. Maybe symbiotic animals like cats and mice take to the vocalizations of the dominant group of humans in some areas. Haven't researched that, but somebody probably has.

I really adore vocal cats. One of my friends had an old aristocratic lady named Sophia, and when she meowed, she sounded like a posh human immitating a cat, to the great delight of visitors.

Hoss Cartright

For twenty years, I travel on business to Catalunya (Spain) I spend one month per year there typically - I stay with friends in the city of Girona near the French border and the Costa Brava. They have a cat named 'Audry' and she is my little friend when I am over there. In the "Catalan" language, she is a "gat"..

What I find interesting is that like most of our cats she is also a rescued feral street kitten. Who knows how many thousands of generations separate her from the cats in our village here in Indiana. But it seems that they are like sparrows in the sense that no matter what continent you go to, cats are cats are cats. Audry's appearance and behavior are no different than our own cats.

noglider 

Yup. I have a video of it somewhere.

qcpmsame 

The 95' pine wasn't Carl's frst tree climbing adventure, he went missing one January Saturday night a few years ago. We have a real problem around rural Escambia County with coyotes taking small dogs and cats as their dinner. He had never stayed out at night and I was sick about him probably being dead, Sunday morning I skipped church and kept calling him. I heard a faint meow and listened carefully, I followed the meow next door and found him up a tree in their yard, the neighbor and I took a ladder and got him down.

When he got up the pine we did call the fire department on the non-emergency number and they were happy for the chance to take their ladder out and play with it for a while. Our cross-the -street neighbor is a lineman/splicer for the power company and he got his radio and found a long reach bucket truck crew finishing up near us and had them drive by. He got his rig out and went up to get Carl since he knew Carl would come over to him easily and ride down on his shoulders. He now limits his tree adventures to running up to the okas in the back area we never cleared and jumping up then dropping down with his tail fluffed out like he was going to attack something. Now he chases moles, much closer to his ground level preference.

He kept me company when I was stuck at home for 4 and then 6 months between surgeries and every other time too. If something happened to him I would have to be put down, I guess.

Bill

rootboy 

Only hanging on by his thumbs!

Amazing.

EBH

Here's our Shankly, named after one famous football(the proper type, not the eggchasing one, in case you wondered ) manager.
This fella's got some real temper, he reigns the street and takes no **** from any other cat or dog in the area.
He also likes to be cuddled and if anyone in the house is ill he'll watch over you. He's such a good cat.

rootboy 

Very handsome beast, EBH.

Surely we can't let the "I hate people" thread outlive the I like cats thread...can we?

Keep 'em coming cat people!

Italuminium

According to Philip Roth, WASP's (and related white middle class types) love animals more than people, so let's prove him wrong!

auchencrow

My Maytag likes to fetch things and bring them to me from downstairs (or from upstairs, if I am downstairs.)
He often pulls socks, towels, and underwear out of the laundry basket, and drops them at my feet - or he raids one of the closets to
bring me slippers (generally my wife's) - though pretty much anything is fair game... Boxes of Kleenex. Rolls of tape. Guitar strings.

I always know he's coming with a new gift because he calls out to me all the way up the stairs (or down). "Meah! meah! meah!"


- Here he is with a sock he brought me just moments ago:


- Here he is after a hard-day's labor:



Here he is after eating flowers ...

billnuke1 

Max..relaxin"

auchencrow

I thought he had bunny ears at first glance! (You need to post bigger pics )

Rob65

My worthless furball lol


Robert

rootboy 

I'm afraid he's nailed this WASP (white Anglo Saxon Pagan)

23skidoo

My son-in-law Alex is a volunteer fireman, EMT and a licensed arborist whose specialty is climbing. He gets about half the 'cat stuck in a tree' calls from the local 911 folks, especially the difficult ones the local fire and rescue folks cant persuade into their bucket. Must be his Irish charm as he always gets his cat.

rootboy 

Thanks guys. She is a sweet cat. Aloof, but sweet.

fietsbob

Got mine from Prof. Schrödinger, it came in a box, shall I open the Box? What will I find?

rootboy 

Cats

yellowbarber

oh no....there's a cat thread.

of course there's a cat thread!
here's Betsy, the cyclo-kitty