Help: My kitten is afraid of stairs!
David Creely
Puffelen) wrote:
> We have a kitten of a few month old. In his former house he used to
> run freely up and down the stairs together with his mother, brother
> and sister. We have "open" stairs but that was true for his former
> house as well. We tried to lure him up the stairs (which seemed to
> work) until he almost fell (I could just grab him). Since then he is
> afraid of the stairs (even if he is carried upstairs). What can we do?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Jan
Jan
My cat would not use the stairs at all until I installed the vertical
risers. He would sit there and SCREAM at the top of his lungs. My
suggestion is to install the risers. It should solve the problem and
certainly is more safe. Good Luck,
Dave
Christine Mahoney
> We have a kitten of a few month old. In his former house he used to
> run freely up and down the stairs together with his mother, brother
> and sister. We have "open" stairs but that was true for his former
> house as well. We tried to lure him up the stairs (which seemed to
> work) until he almost fell (I could just grab him). Since then he is
> afraid of the stairs (even if he is carried upstairs). What can we do?
> Thanks in advance,
> Jan
My sister's cats were scared of stairs the first time they were at their
summer house. After a few weekend they were running up and down the
stairs two at a time.
Christine
cmah...@mhc.mtholyoke.edu
--
Matt White
Well if the kitten is small, (some grow faster than others and since it's
been a year or two since I've had kittens I'm not sure how big a three
month old is) it will most likely be afraid of other things anyway. (Beds,
tables, etc) I'm pretty sure he'll grow out of his fear as to I can't
imagine any full grown cat being afraid of stairs or any kind of heights
for that matter.
--
_____________________________________________________________________________
>>>>>Matt White<<<<<matw...@freenet.columbus.oh.us.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
"If It happens.. It happens. If It doesn't happen, well.. It doesn't happen."
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David Creely
matw...@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Matt White) wrote:
> Well if the kitten is small, (some grow faster than others and since it's
> been a year or two since I've had kittens I'm not sure how big a three
> month old is) it will most likely be afraid of other things anyway. (Beds,
> tables, etc) I'm pretty sure he'll grow out of his fear as to I can't
> imagine any full grown cat being afraid of stairs or any kind of heights
> for that matter.
>(snip)
This is not true!!!!
My adult cat Samson (who seemed to be afraid of nothing) would not use the
stairs to the basement until I installed vertical risers. That was all
there was to it. He simply refused. I don't know why he didn't because
he is a very brave cat. Does anyone else know about this fear?
David
cper...@kean.ucs.mun.ca
Maybe he had a bad experience. A friend's kitten got up on the porch roof
once (in winter, yet), and couldn't figure out how to get down. Eventually,
his owners borrowed a ladder and rescued him. He not only never climbed on
the roof again, he hated snow, and never went outside in the winter!
Cheryl
Kaddin Heaney
scary stairs. Poor George (then mabye 10 years old) had a broken hind
leg which was in a big heavy cast. We all felt just terrible about it,
since it looked so uncomfortable and was probably very hot and itchy,
and needless to say George was feeling rather bad about it too.
Anyway, George lived in a tall, skinny townhouse with 12 half-story
staircases winding up from the basement (kittybox) to the bedrooms
(warm sleepy spot). These stairs are bare wood, and they have no back
- in other words, you can drop things through each stair.
I distinctly remember rushing to George's aid anytime I heard his
heavy cast clunking around on the stairs. He had to stop to regroup
after each one. I was really scared he might slip (that's actually how
he wound up in the cast), and maybe his heavy cast would pull him
through the stairs! Looking back on this, I doubt that would have
happened, but until the cast came off, I provided constant "elevator
service", carrying him up each flight, setting him down, seeing if he
had meant to go up more, and doing it again. I was definately more
scared of those stairs than he was.
K. Heaney
P.S. George is now 19 and still lives in that skinny townhouse. As a
older guy, I bet he really misses those "elevator" days (his litterbox
is still in the basement and his bed on the top floor)...