open windows and cats do not mix!

[tab]

my dh was in the lounge yesterday, thought he heard something and then saw milo looking in through the french doors!! he opened the door and milo came straight in looking a little scared. dh realised he must have fallen out of a window, the bathroom window on the first floor!

i came home a few minutes later and after being told what had happened i checked milo over. thankfully, apart from 1 bloody claw and several scuffed ones, he seems to be absolutely fine.

i feel sick thinking what could have happened, either terrible injuries or him running off.

a big lesson learnt for us not to leave any window, even the small fanlight one (that milo fell from).

 

[nimbus]

Oh no! I'm glad Milo is ok. Hopefully, he learned his lesson heh. Everyone needs to watch out for screened windows too---my Nimbus chewed through a screen on the first story window and climbed out. Of course, once he was outside he was too terrified to actually go anywhere, but still

.

 

[carleysmum]

These things happen so quickly too.

Julie
www.tedswhinebar.com

 

[cocoa cream]

Oh dear! I'm glad he knew where to go to get someone's attention and be let back in! A friend of mine told me a similar story about her cat growing up. She came home one day and couldn't find the cat anywhere! She happened to look at the cat's favorite window and realized the screen was torn. She found the cat outside on the front porch, but the poor thing was so scared that it ran away from her at first! It apparently took a while to get her cat calm enough to bring her back inside.

 

[jaffacake]

Gosh, that is scary. Glad to hear he`s ok

 

[jack31]

I have to laugh as I was talking to my friend yesterday who has three cats. About 2 weeks ago they found all 3 cats out on their porch roof--they don't have screens in their bedroom window and the cats got into the room and out the window. They got them all off the roof and didn't really give a second thought to it happening again.

Yesterday they couldn't find their youngest and smallest, Paris a calico. They went outside and yelled for her and there she came running. Apparently, she jumped off the porch roof! She is fine, happy to be back inside!

Leslie

 

[tab]

thanks everyone. he was a little quiet for a couple of hours but was then tearing about with shinobi.

 

[purrrplej]

What a scare! I never would have thought of cats tearing through window screens, like has happened to some of the other posters. I guess my Mom is wiser than I, however - she opens the top of the windows rather than the bottom, so the screens are too high for Simba to get at them (not that he has any claws to tear at them with). (She has special windows that can be pushed up from the bottom or down from the top.)

I've never opened the windows in my current (soon to be former) house, because the screens have too many holes and would let in bugs. I can't remember whether I've opened the windows at my old apartment, where Murray first came to live with me. But I'll certainly be careful in the future, after reading these posts!!

 

[cdubbie]

Years ago I had a cat fall from a third story window.
It was a v. expensive and v. painful recovery process - not to mention a long time he had to stay immobile after his leg surgeries.

To this day, I do not allow my cats access to open-window ledges. The windows are either cracked only or I have of those expandable screens I use to 'double up' the screen protection. I prefer just the cracked windows. Smidge has enough room to put her face in and that's it.

Glad your baby is OK. Quite scary.

 

[jcat]

I can really recommend Pet Screen. We have it in the windows we regularly open (no air conditioning), and Jamie, who at 6.1 kg. (almost 13.5 lbs) has a lot of weight behind him, hasn't managed to budge or damage the screens. Pet Screen It's sold in Europe, too. If you can't get it at a DIY store, try companies that put in replacement windows.

 

[jack31]

We too open windows from the top not the bottom. The only windows that are opened from the bottom are ones we supervise--and are immediately shut when we leave the room.

Leslie

 

[emeraldsongbird]

I'm glad he's okay!!! Goodness... You know, my step-brothers had their windows open, and I would go and close their doors because Bella is waaaay too curious to leave an open window alone. They made me feel stupid and said there's no way a cat would fall out of the window. Well, now I know that's not true!

Thank Goodness Milo is okay!!

 

[deedeemay]

My sister's cat Milo was an indoor cat in their first house, and after his incident with the first floor window that they left open for a few minutes he was allowed to venture outside to prevent any more mischievous behaviour. (He fell out the window and dislocated his hips)

They have moved house since then, and he goes outside all the time. Her other two cats (Bella and Daisy) who arrived shortly after the move, they go outside too.

 

[lauracatlover]

The other day Mitzi decided to jump from my bedroom window on the second floor. She's allowed to go outside so she wasn't scared, and luckily didn't hurt herself.

Glad Milo's ok.

 

[jellybella]

Glad to hear Milo survived his adventure. Hopefully he is wiser now.

Bella has stopped my heart by getting out on the window ledge behind me (I was hanging laundry out of the 3rd floor window)

We have those adjustable screens that go in between the window and the sill. They give a second layer of bug protection and keep the kiddos a safe distance from the real screen. Next year, when DH has fixed the rest of our windows, I look forward to being able to open them at the top (better for x-ventilation too!).

 

[kalikat]

I'm glad to hear that Blossom isn't the only cat to wreck fly screens. Last summer I had the loungeroom window open. I could hear a strange noise, Blossom doesn't meow & if she does it's very soft. Well it was her attempting to meow. She was hanging outside the loungeroom window by one leg. It took all my strength to rescue her. Prior to this she has jumped out of the kitchen & laundry windows. The laundry window screen was torn by Coco, now my mother's cat. She used to always jump out of it.

 

[cat_lady]

awww i'm glad hes ok. now he knows not to do whatever he did!

 

[strakatz]

When I was a kid we had about 15 cats that lived outside. I would leave my bedroom window open and the door closed. Winter time my bed would get crowded, summer not so much. These days it's just 4 cats and 2 pittbulls.

 

[babywukong]

I wish Cassie was scared to move whenever she got out. I live in a 3-storey house, but Cassie was a feral kitty before she came to live with me, so all that space in the house probably still wasn't enough for her roaming instincts. Besides, she was very familiar with my neighbourhood.

Everytime I didn't close the door within 0.4 seconds of opening it, she'd be out like lightning, and no amount of calling would get her indoors till she was good and ready. In fact, this was how my parents found out about her existence.

Some may know my story: Parents didn't like cats, Cassie came to live with me just after they both left to work abroad. Each time they came back, Cassie had to go stay with a friend (this was during the process of trying to foster Cassie and Wukong out).

So Cassie ran out quite frequently, and on more than one occasion decided to poop in the neighbour's yard before coming back (I did not know about the pooping issue until later).

The neighbour apparently didn't like Cassie, but for some reason didn't tell me to the face. When my mother came back from overseas, the neighbour told her "If your daughter doens't know how to keep her cat from coming into my garden, tell her not to have one!"

And that was how my mother found out about Cassie. She didn't speak to me for a month, and Cassie had to stay at my friend's house long-term before she was eventually adopted. Until now I hate that neighbour's guts.

And it seems I've gone totally off topic!