Evening star., 1947-02-14
This and That
Bv Charles E. Trdce1Dell

If you have sometimes wondered why
particular house cat can climb up a
tree but can't come down without as
sistance, here is the answer.
He or she lacks Intelligence or proper
training, or maybe both.
ALI cats have standard equipment,
when it comes to legs and claws.
All of them can climb up, but some
of them do not know enough to back
down.
The blame goes either on the indi-
vidual cat, as lacking intelligence, or on
it's mother for not training it properly.
You see. the claws of these animals
are so constructed that they engage
the bark, as they climb up, but if they
insist on coming down head first, as
the reckless ones do, the claws touch
on the back and simply slip.
When the animal feels itself slipping,
it refuses to descend, usually retiring to
a safe seat in crotch.
The fault lies with the mother who
probably did not teach the kitten how
to come down tree in the same way
it goes up, i.e., head up, not head down.
Purposeful mother cats inculcate this
knowledge at a very early age.
Cat enthusiasts know that any good
mother cat sees that its kittens know
how to climb trees, and, what is more
to the point, how to come down easily.
Mother cats may be seen actually
pulling the kittens down on the bark,
maybe no more than two or three feet
at the time.
Once learned, the kitten never forgets.
If the mother fails in this teaching,
or the kittens are taken away, many
of them never learn how on their own.
Then there are plainly ignorant cats,
who never learn, either on their own
or through teaching.
These are the ones, usually, treed in
the downtown who excite the comments
of sympathetic passersby, and finally
require some man with a ladder to
rescue them.
If mother cats do not or cannot train
their kittens in this respect, some kind
human being should take over the job.
The kitten should be placed up on the
bark, head up, when it will, of course,
scamper up bit higher, testing out its
claws.
Then force it to go backward, still
head up to get the idea of coming down
in the same position it climbs.
If it insists on turning around, head
down, life all four paws from the tree
and place the kitten back on the bark
with head up, and again push it to go
down.
In this simple way in few lessons,
almost any kitten will learn a lifelong
accomplishment.
Unframed cats, ignorant cats, and
sometimes unfortunate cats, frightened
by getting too high, sometimes may be
induced to descend by the smell of sal
mon in dish beneath the tree.
All barking dogs and gawking humans.
however, must get out of the way and
remain away until the cat gets up its
nerve to back down.
The aroma of canned salmon is
pretty strong and is easily smelled by
the cat alof,s so that in many cases the
lure is overpoWerlng.
Once cat gets started down the right
way, it usually continues until some 10
feet or so from the ground when 1t will
turn around and jump.
There are few living things more
stubborn than an ignorant or unframed
cat up a tree. but, with patience and
freedom from commotion below it usu-
ally may be induced to come down.
Often a sympathetic feminine voice will
help the cat Masculine voices are here
aSdead loss, as they 50 often are,