Posted on 07/07/2011 12:58:41 AM PDT by shibumi
An amateur photographer has told how he managed to get this amazing picture of a cat balancing on a 17th floor balcony railing.
Ivo Berg, 22, a marketing engineer from Berlin, was visiting a friend who lived with his two pet cats in a high rise in Santiago, Chile.
He said: "As soon as I got to my friend's apartment I fell in love with the view but I was also very worried about the suicidal behaviour of his two cats.
"They would chase each other through the apartment, fighting and playing. But they would also jump on to the balcony and the railing.
"I was afraid that they could fall, but my friend told me that he tried stopping them from doing it several times, but that they wouldn't.
"It was incredibly frightening and I knew I needed to get a photograph of it, but the problem with cats is they never do what you want them to do.
"When I tried taking a photo they would sit on the railing until I had my equipment ready, then they would jump down and look at what I was doing.
"It was if they were intentionally trying to provoke me. Finally, it was my last evening in Chile and I was determined to get a photo.
"So I waited at the balcony for about 20 minutes, with my camera handy, for the cats to start playing.
"They didn't play, but Cereal jumped on the railing and sat there looking at me.
"I knew this was my chance - the background looked beautiful and I shot about 10 photos before she jumped down."
kittyping
Oh my.
Supercat!
Seriously he ought to keep the cats in. Let them meow at the screen door to the balcony. If one jumps, such as at a bird, it is almost certainly curtains for the cat. Some kind of screening on the inside of the balcony bars would prevent their walking through, but it’s easy enough for them to jump to the balcony rail as shown.
Fried kitten coming up....
Beautiful shot, but scary. I had two cats who used to climb out my condo window on the 12th floor - only when I wasn’t home - and walk on a narrow window ledge to visit a neighbor around the building. I had no idea until the neighbor described my cats and told me of their secret visits. I kept the windows closed after that!
There are commercial cat cages a person can buy that would give ample room for the cat to wander around within that would also give the cat a high perch to sit on and look around.
Joining it somehow with the apartment would facilitate this, otherwise how do you get kitty to go in?
You guys remind me of liberals, environmentalists and PETA. The damn cats are doing fine but you are worried to death about what “might” happen or what “could” happen. Leave them alone. They are cats, for Pete’s sake.
Cats have natural inclinations. They like to be up high and perch in/on most unusual spaces and places. We have padded the kids from head to toe and stopped fun games like tag, Red Rover and dodge ball. Can we please at least leave the cats alone.
If you need to keep a cat in a cage like that, you shouldn’t have a cat. While cats can be either indoor or outdoor animals, they have their dignity and they need their freedom.
While there are exceptions, most cats are perfectly safe in situations like the one shown in the picture. Providing, that is, that their pet humans don’t freak out and try to “rescue” them.
Perhaps this risk-taking offers the cats their greatest sense of joy and pride in personal accomplishment in an otherwise dull, quotidian life. Why rob them of their freedom?
I knew someone that lived in the Holiday Inn in Augsburg, GE. He had a ferret that loved to play on the balcony.
One day a thunderstorm was moving in when Mr Ferret was playing around the balcony. A thunderclap scared him and Mr Ferret had to quickly learn how to fly within the span of 20 stories.
My friend didn’t get a new ferret.
Sometimes humans go skydiving and the parachute doesn’t open right. Mr. Ferret was doing his thing, his way when the fickle finger of fate decided to zap him.
We all gotta go sometime.
Who is this Pete that you speak of? And why should I be worried about his sake?
If you haven’t heard that very old and often used saying then don’t accept it. When I used it I anticipated a response like yours and almost changed my mind about using it. What about For pity sake? Another old one.
Cats think they are cool, but if this kitty keeps up his balancing act he will eventually get hurt.
Our big black Maine Coon loves to sit in the bathroom window. He gets there by leaping from the floor up over the tub and into the window. Two weeks ago, while getting down, he misjudged and his rear feet hit the edge of the tub; he came down onto the floor on his chin and put one of his canines completely through his tongue where it remained stuck. We had to chase him all over the house to catch him and lift his tongue off of the tooth. He’s fine now and none the worse for wear.
Cats do make mistakes in judgement when they perform these feats of balance and acrobatics.
Hmmm.....for some reason I visualize a Gary Larson cartoon from that photo. I can just imagine a dog sneaking up from behind holding a lit match and a firecracker. :)
It was something like.up to 5 floors..pretty good..5-10 floors , not so good..10-20 floors..they did much better..above 20..lights out..
seems, from 10-20 floors, they had time to orient themselves.."relax" and prepare for landing..
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