Remarkable survival or coolest cat trick ever?

  • Thread starter Blinky
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Miraculous survivor or sly kitty?

  • 26 days in a tree.

    Votes: 3 18.8%

  • Sneaking down for dinner and going back up just to screw with the owners

    Votes: 10 62.5%

  • Alien feline... doesn't need food or water.

    Votes: 3 18.8%
  • Total voters
    16
B

Blinky

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I plucked a Persian long hair out of a big willow oak today that had been there for 26 days. This is the third time I've gotten this particular cat out of this particular tree. The owners decided to wait the cat out this time and they gave after 25 days and called me.

Thing is, this cat was well groomed and seemed perfectly healthy when I got to it and was easy as ever to bag. There were some small pockets of water in some crotches and at least three scats.

The longest I've heard of a cat staying in a tree is 21 days. I got one down once that had been missing for 17 and it was weak and clearly fading. It died a few days later.

So the question is... is the cat coming down when nodody's looking to feed? What's the longevity of an exposed cat with access to only a small amount of water. Temps here have been mid 90's and no rain for weeks until Saturday.
 
Lordy.

My two dumb kats like the heat. They hang out more in the hot part of my house than the AC'd part.

Good question. :drink:
 
I think cats can go without food that long. I can't go a day without sugar bonking.
 
I don't know about food, but they'll be in big trouble without some kind of liquid input for a few days. I suppose he could have been successfully hunting in the canopy.


Darin, get thee to a chocolate bar.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7
We locked our calico in the unfinished attic and went on vacation for two weeks during the Summer. There was no water up their at all and it was sweltering when the sun was on it. She lived with no change in behavior... which was always pissed off.

I've got a theory about the Persian but I want to see if anybody else pieces it together the same way. It was a big tree, ~50"-60"dba, 75' of spread, around 100' tall. The owner never saw the cat above where I found her which was about 40'. She had some sleeping spots where white fur was all matted up.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #9
I think cats can go a long time without food too but I think going from eating daily to a 26 day fast seems like it would show in some way. Grooming seems to be the first thing to go that I noticed when my cats got sick. This cat had a morning routine of stretching and grooming in the tree.

Another thing, they wrapped the trunk with 3-1/2' of sheet metal about 8' up to stop her from climbing... which apparently it doesn't.
 
There are truly some interesting cat survival stories-like the kitty locked in a shipping container without food or water for 21 days that survived.....but i bet that your persian loves you Chip and is merely treesitting during the day and sneaking down at night in order to get the owners to call you to come visit.
 
I've recently rescued 3 cats that had been up there for 9 days or more. All 3 were uninterested in food or water when they got back down. One of the owners was a veterinarian, so I took the opportunity to ask questions. Apparently, most cats can eat up to 1/4 of their body weight in a single sitting, which is a survival mechanism of most predators who eat infrequently. They can go for weeks without food without problem as long as they keep their metabolic rate low (hence the 14 hours of sleep per day punctuated by spells of laying about). House cats in particular are well adapted for desert climates, tolerating heat well and being capable of going without water for many days. This is because they only lose water through urine, the pads in their feet and their mouth. By keeping the mouth closed and feet covered up, they minimize moisture loss. Cats can also reabsorb moisture from their urine simply by holding it, but they don't do this unless they have to probably because it's uncomfortable.
 
We had a kitten at the shop get inside someones truck, once. It spent all day inside with the windows rolled up on a HOT summer day. My buddy found it and it was just about dead. I ran a garden hose over it for a few minutes and poof, the cat came back to life and ran off. Amazing. No human coulda survived that.
 
Lots of leaves = lots of dew in the cool of the morning. Surprising how much moisture can be gotten for a small animal.
 
Not even the Purina Cat Chow site gives specifics about how long a cat can live without food, other than saying "weeks". Somewhere I read that without food, cats don't die of starvation, but it gives them a terminal liver disease.
 
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