How long can a cat survive being stuck in a tree?
What would you guess? Two hours? Two days? Two weeks?
Jon Cable, arguably the most experienced cat rescuer in Chattanooga, tells people to wait at least two days before calling a professional like him for help.
“Before 2 1/2 days, there is a pretty good chance the cat is going to figure it out and come down on its own,” Cable said in an interview. “That’s what you want.
“I think people are cheating the cat if they have me come out too quickly,” he said.
Of the approximately 2,000 calls for help extracting cats Cable has answered over the years, he has sent staff to less than 10%.
Still, some people can’t stand to see their pet in peril, he said, and insist he come immediately when darkness or storms arrive.
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If it eases anyone’s anxiety, Cable said he has never seen a cat seriously hurt from a tree fall. Nor has he ever found a cat skeleton in a tree, he said.
“Cats have an amazing ability to fall,” he said. “I’ve seen one fall from 40-plus feet and one fall from 50 feet.”
He said neither cat was seriously injured.
Cable said that pet owners should not put food at the base of the tree. It never works to coax the cat down, he said, and the food can actually attract predators.
He said the problem with treed cats is that they must back down the tree because of the way their claws are shaped, and a blind descent makes them nervous.
By his count, Cable has rescued 177 cats, three drones and two pet birds. Some pet birds with clipped wings can fly up but not down, he said.
He charges $355, on average, to rescue a cat in the Chattanooga area, because he has to send a highly skilled climber. The extractions involve placing ropes high into the branches of trees. He has only used a lift truck once, he said.
His climbers use a pillowcase with two gloves sewn in. With a hand in one glove, they try to get close enough to grab the cat by the scruff of the neck.
“Once you have them, you pull the bag around them and then pull the draw string (to trap them inside),” he said.
Cats become feral the longer they stay in a tree and will often fight anyone trying to help them, he said.
Most people think that fire departments rescue cats for free, he said. Most decline because of a lack of worker training and/or liability if a pet rescue causes them to miss a fire that threatens human life, he said.
Customers find Cable’s company through an online directory called “Cat In A Tree Emergency Rescuers.” He estimates that he fields about one cat rescue call a week, sometimes from as far away as North Carolina or deep into Georgia.
One cat his company rescued had been aloft for 21 days, he said, although he once heard of a cat that was saved by another outfit after spending more than a month stuck in a tree.
Some of his more memorable rescues involved a kitten stuck in a retaining wall, a cat whose owner was afraid of losing his “best friend” (he didn’t) and a cat on Signal Mountain that became so agitated during a rescue that it urinated a copious amount.
“The duration of this pee was unreal,” Cable said.
Cable, owner of Anderson Gutter and Tree Service in Red Bank, has been snagging cats out of trees for about 20 years. From his office beside Dub’s Place Restaurant on Dayton Boulevard, Cable dispatches climbers from his staff of 12. Often he goes himself, since he has the most experience.
Cable’s business evolved from a gutter cleaning company he started almost a quarter century ago when he was attending University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In the beginning, he was famous for using his rock climbing skills and working barefoot.
Cable has two cats of his own, a male named Timber and a female named Molly.
If the male cat ever gets caught in a tree, a tree-cutter yelling “Timber” could cause some confusion in the neighborhood.
Life Stories is published on Mondays. Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645.