To knock on a door at 7am on a Sunday

[CatRescueNeeded]

Hi

My cat has been missing since yesterday evening and I’ve just found him up an incredibly tall tree up the road. I’ll contact an emergency tree surgeon asap. How early is it reasonable to knock on a neighbours door on a Sunday? AIBU to knock at 7am? They live a few doors up so I’ve never met them

Cat went up tree. Cat came down tree. Is this the most stupid boring thread EVER?

Heh, my dogs would be the first thing you'd have to deal with if you tried to get to my door at 7am on a Sunday, because they'll know you're coming well before I do. I'm usually up at 6am on any day of the week, so if I get a surprise and manage to sleep until 7, I really don't want it disturbed. If you can tell I'm up at 7, by all means knock.

I did help an animal during the night two weeks ago, btw. And didn't mind a bit. But your cat can wait if it's not injured.

Yes, I feel the same as would my DH and DC - poor cat!

I'm so glad he found his way down. What a beautiful cat as well 💜

Unfortunately they don't always make their way down. I hate to be that one poster but on the local cat pages in our city on fb, one lady saw one that was deceased in a tree. The cat was stuck or wedged somehow in the tree. Neither the fire brigade or the council would help so she could get it down and checked for a chip. It was awful. Someone eventually helped and checked at the vets it was deceased. 😭 Unfortunately I don't know if the owner was ever found.

Doesn't anyone else feel for the poor birds that were using that tree. Roosting or nesting?
Tons of posts on not cutting trees and hedges as its nesting season but support that someone's pet is allowed out to decimate the population.

Least we got pictures!

Great news - I'm glad he's home safe and sound.

I'd have no issue with someone knocking on my door early to help a distressed animal. That's much more reasonable than the Amazon driver who knocked with a parcel at 7:30am a few Sundays ago!

Or my neighbour, who leaves for work around the same time on Sundays and has apparently never heard of car de-icer. Instead, he just revs his engine under my bedroom window for 10-15 minutes until the windscreen clears 🙃

Cats were outside way before they domesticated themselves.

Humans do far more damage to wildlife. Why don't you stay inside?

Get some branches from another tree or planks of wood or a ladder.. prop it up.. put food at the bottom... it will eventually come down. Might have been scared by a dog or a squirrel... had cats my whole life and they have climbed some very high trees.. . You say it went missing.. but it might not have been up the tree all night..

Same.

If someone knocked for a parcel at 7am on a Sunday I would be a bit disgruntled... But for an animal need? Of course it's okay!

I bet if it was a dog in need everyone would be saying different though. There's a huge difference in how people view the importance of cats vs dogs. It's pretty awful.

I'm surprised by the replies. If someone woke me up at any time because their cat was in distress I'd be out there straight away trying to help them and offering the owner a cup of coffee. The same would apply for any animal or person, unless I felt unsafe.

Really?
My kids were early risers, usually around 6am. Eventually they outgrew that, but we still had to get up early at weekends for football. Since last September my younger son’s football matches are now in the afternoon, so finally, after nearly 20 years, I get a Sunday lie in. I’d be furious if I got woken at 7am, especially for a cat that was clearly perfectly capable of coming down on its own when the food appeared!

As opposed to people talking about all the other really, super, extremely important stuff on here? MN is like 90% people asking random questions and 10% profound conversations. 😂

If you hate cats, just say that.

I wouldn’t be nasty to the OP - but I would be pretty pissed off at being disturbed. That doesn’t make me a horrible twat.

Would that be because your neighbour wasn’t capable of boiling a kettle and opening a tin of tuna themselves?

There's a section on mumsnet called The Litter Tray.
Never go there....

I'm glad he's home, but I'm gobsmacked that you seriously entertained the idea of sending a tree surgeon round to chop down someone else's tree without permission

I’d be fine with someone knocking at 7am to let me know that someone was coming out to climb my tree. Your cats meowing might have been annoying them all night anyway. I’d see it as a bit of an emergency and wouldn’t appreciate someone in my garden without my knowledge

For future reference, if you can’t entice the cat down (which worked fine in this situation) you should call the fire brigade, ideally on the non emergency number. If they are not fighting fires or other emergency work at that point they will come and rescue cats, it’s training to use their equipment and useful. They will obviously prioritise emergencies that don’t involve cats and if it’s around shift change you will need to wait.

She was calling him for his equipment...
Not to chop the tree down!!! That would be unreasonable haha

I assume she was thinking the tree surgeon had access equipment to get up to the cat rather than chop the tree down.

I remember a few years back a cat near where we lived at the time being stuck up a tree for a few days, its pitiful cries tugging at everyone's heart strings.

The fire brigade came out and the man went up and up and up until level with the cat, the crowd gathered below watching the drama unfold and the cat turned around and adeptly climbed back down quite easily and flicked his tail in disgust at the crowd and walked off!

The owner was mortified but the fire brigade reassured her that it was good for training and were pleased the cat had come down safely.

Erm, I imagine the OP was thinking of tree surgeons because they have the equipment and skills to get up the tree to help the cat down, not chop the tree down.

I looked this up, for future reference, and apparently the correct protocol is actually to call a tree surgeon if you can't entice the cat down, just like the OP wanted to!

If the cat cannot make their way down because they're entangled in some way, you call the RSPCA to help, who then call the fire brigade only if they can't get the cat down themselves.

But you don't call the fire brigade for a cat in a tree. You call someone else, who then assesses if they're necessary.

@CatRescueNeeded How did you manage to get your cat down? Might be useful for other people to know in case they are in a similar position another time.

Oh bless him, it’s so upsetting when they get stuck. So glad he is down now. You must be so relieved!