how high can they safely go?

[LauraT7]

I'm a pretty new cat mom -

Pixel has loved the 'perches' we've made for him where he can watch the house (and the dog!) without feeling threatened by the dog ( a friendly and good Golden retreiver girl - she is very good about 'ignoring' Pixel as he gets very hissy with her) -

most of these high spots aren't really too high - the top of a 4 drawer file cabinet, a bookshelf, the top of a 5' upright freezer - and all have other 'stuff' - tabletops, other shelves - that lead up to them.

Pixel isn't big cat - maybe 8-10 lbs, and athletic - used to being outside and climbing fences and trees.

but tonite, he got up on top of my tall oak and leaded glass china hutch - which has no 'intermediate' furniture nearby. i have no idea how he got up there - as it's probably close to 7 1/2 ft tall!

part of the probelm is that we are most often in the living room, and there really is no 'high perch' for him there, yet. He's often on the backs of the couches, but that's not out of reach of the dog, and the couches are rocker/recliners - so they move. He can watch out the front window - but couldn't really 'relax' or sleep on them.

I have plans to make him some carpeted 'catwalk shelves', but haven't done so yet. Meanwhile, I'm afraid that he might hurt himself trying to get up or down from too high. i don't really mind him up there, but i also don't want him to dig in claws on my good wood furniture, either. I HEARD him come down - but didn't SEE him. Plus - we have all hardwood floors - no carpet - so there's nothing on the floor to pad his fall or for him to 'grab' with claws.

Jon said he kinda 'braced' himself between the corner of the cabinet and the wall (which is wood panelling) when he came down, but there's really nothing there to 'grab' either.

how high can most cats jump safely?

Do I need to worry about him being that high?

Laura

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

I think the carpeted cat walks would be wonderful! I have a friend who lives near Seattle who made these for her three cats and they love them! As to how high up....well...if you're concerned, make them high enough to be out of the dogs reach but not so high that you feel uncomfortable. There have been stories here of kitties spraining legs and such jumping down from high places - or so we suspect, in most cases nobody was a witness so we can only speculate as to why kitty was limping.

Good luck! :)

[catnapper]

Boy, my cats are jealous about the cat walks! :D

My granmom's cat used to routinely jump from the floor to the top of a similar hutch, and he was a fat old boy! Cats are amazing and surprise me daily with what they can do.

[catmandu]

Actually,I have read,that the higher a Cat,is,the safer,they are,as they have more time,to react,to the fall,by spreading thier arms,like a Flying Squirrel! Thats how,sometimes a Cat can fall, a long distance,from a High Rise,and not get hurt.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/catmandu/catphotos619.jpg

[LauraT7]

thanks for the replies -

At least I won't worry about him so much, anymore....

having been an outside cat, I'm sure he's pretty good at taking care of himself, but he's made a cople of jumps where he 'slid' into stuff, and I don't want him pulling down a heavy lamp or something glass (and breaking it) on himself.

Having always had dogs with big wavy tails, we don't have much breakable stuff around, anyway - but then they never could reach higher than table top - at the most.

In most of our rooms, Pixel has one or two head-high perches that are easy to get to in stages, as he seems to like just being 'with' us, wherever we are. But our house is small, (no family room - our living room is where we spend our TV / family time) and everything in there is either people seating ( and accesable to the dog) or VERY high. Not much in between.

I looked at building him a cat-tree for the living room - but since we don't have much floor space to spare, when I saw those KatWallks on the web, I knew I could make some pretty easily myself, and that he would probably like them even better than a 'tree'.

Have you seen their website? http://www.katwallks.com/

man - they look like so much fun, I wish I was a cat!

Now if i can only find the TIME to make them, among the other things on my 'To Do' list!

Laura