Is it normal for a cat to refuse going down an staircase.

My cat Cucumella went out of the apartment without us noticing and spent all night several floors above ours. I found her next morning and wondered that she hadn't found her way home. One of the proprietors complained that she had cried all night. I didn't realize that she was missing until early next morning. When I found her she was terrified. I picked her up and brought her back home. She was hot. I'm sure she had a temperature, she slept all day long and when she woke up in the evening she was fine. Her body

temperature was normal again.

But I'm coming back to my question. I realized that she didn't come back home because she was afraid of coming down the staircase. Cucumella is very agile, she jumps on very high furniture and jumps down without any problem but she is terrified to step down a short distance where she must advance a paw at a time. Is this a common situation This is the first time she has "eloped" so I had no occasion to realize this before.

I'll be grateful for any reply. Many thanks

Golondrina

Well, I can only speak for my own cats, and I have 9 different ones and always had stairs on my houses.  They have ALL run up and DOWN the stairs all the time.  I suppose the very first time they were tentative about it, but once they figured it out,they were good to go .

With your girl, I don't think it's a health problem if she can jump and and down within your apartment.  Perhaps you could train her by setting up a box and putting it next to your sofa or bed and showing her how to jump up on it and onto the sofa or bed, then got down the same way?  It may take some patience, but will be well worth while.  (You may need to put treats down on the box when coaxing her to come down)