The d*g lovers on this site always like to point out that cats don’t do anything helpful for humanity: dogs do jobs like saving drowning people or fetching ducks or guiding blind people, while cats do squat. Well, the emotional pleasure and peace that a soft, purring cat conveys can’t be dismissed; and here’s a case in which a cat really might have helped save someone’s life: a suicidal man on a ledge in San Francisco.
As SFGate reports, a man suspected of stealing a car somehow got on a third-floor ledge and threatened to jump.
The man, barefoot and wearing only black shorts, was distraught and hanging out of a third-floor window of a building at 10th and Harrison streets, threatening to leap. Officers set up foam pads below him as the department’s trained hostage negotiators perched precariously on a fire escape, urging the suicidal man figuratively and literally off the ledge.
But after three unsuccessful hours, reinforcements arrived — in the form of the man’s orange-and-white feline.
Using his pet, hostage negotiators were able to persuade him to go back inside the building, come down the stairs and surrender without incident.
Within 45 minutes of the cat’s arrival, the 3½-hour standoff was over.
“Using the cat was ingenious,” said Officer Albie Esparza, a police spokesman. “Never underestimate the power of the love between people and their pets. I think it was great to think outside the box like the officers did. It made enough of an impact on this person to bring him down and come to his senses.”
. . .“I don’t remember ever using a cat before, but it worked,” Esparza said. “The guy voluntarily came out of the window and opened the door and was taken into custody without incident.”
Esparza said he never got the cat’s name, but he applauded the officers for their quick thinking, as well as their sensitivity. Even as the man was handcuffed and taken to a police car, officers brought the cat to him so he could see his beloved feline before going to jail.
The scene:
The rescue cat:
Reader Diane G. was one of the reader who sent me this piece, and I wrote back saying that it wasn’t clear whether the cat itself played a pivotal role in averting the suicide. Her response?
Cat probably told the guy, “You do anything to disrupt my flow of Friskies and you won’t have to worry about killing yourself–I’ll do it for you!”
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I’m not sure how they took this nice video of a Pallas’s cat, or manul (Ocotolobus manul), as they’re secretive; but it doesn’t look as though it was taken in captivity. At any rate, I’m putting it up because it’s my favorite wild felid: all cute and furry, with very small ears to conform to its cold habitat (“Allen’s Rule“).
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Finally, if you go to Etsy, you can find a swell rolling pin (or rather, several) that can emboss your cookies or pies or dough with cool pictures of cats. It’ll cost you around $32, but it’s good Polish beech wood, and will provide a lifetime of pleasure and LOLs. Have a look:
p.s. You can also get butterflies, owls, jungle animals, dinosaurs (Matthew would like those), monkeys, horses, and yes. . . d*gs. But I wouldn’t eat a d*g cookie.
h/t: jsp, Taskin, Diane G., jsp, Graham
Don’t think I’d eat a d*g biscuit, either….
b&
:O Dinosaur biscuits! I know what Alex is getting Alex for Newtonmas, from Santa.
Two (three?) houses ago, I edged the kitchen shelving with wood embossed with stegosaurs and tyrannosaurs in endless pursuit.
Do I look like the sort of geologist whose furry one-piece suite (for caving and drysuit diving in) also has dinosaurs printed all over it?
Those, and an owl taped to the monitor at work. One acquires a reputation.
Very cool indeed! 🙂
Love the rolling pin!
I’d get one, but the current exchange rate, plus postage across the world, means it’d cost about $100!
Have never understood why anyone lucky enough to live in San Francisco would be contemplating suicide. Great idea anyway – the cat.
That Pallas’s Cat looks part marmot!
Is the manul making any sounds, but or are they all bird calls? The soundscertainly made Carmen Dingle perk her largish ears up!
Pls ignore the “but”
I wondered that too – one of the sounds I thought might be the cat.
Those disks look like pizzelles*, but then I remembered that pizzelles are made the same way as waffles. So next up should be a pizzelle maker with that pattern, so PCCE can enjoy them for Koynezza.
*Not to be confused with pizzles.
So glad you clarified the pizzelle vs pizzle distinction🐸
In response to your needling this morning (no matter how well deserved), may I suggest the following article that hit my email this morning, as well. :))
M. Greg Matwichuk Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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“I’m not sure how they took this nice video of a Pallas’s cat”.
From the shadow before the bird nest I would guess something like the wheeled BeetleCam from the lion and elephant movies.
Remember those!? I found a description that implies the inventor has gone commercial, so these robot cameras could be everywhere. [ http://www.burrard-lucas.com/beetlecam ]
I was thinking of the related “rock cam” too.
I don’t fancy the bird’s role. I bet they didn’t get many volunteers for that role.
I just took a look at that site. Quite an ingenious gadget.
One advantage it has is that it isn’t too inconspicuous – it’s not threatening in appearance, but (from the photos/videos linked) it evokes some curiosity in the subject animals, so they all look at the camera – very convenient for the photographer.
cr
Ugh! Dog cookies!
Cats provide much comfort to the grieving too! My two little girls have stayed beside me through many difficult times. ( they are 12 1/2 and 17 years old.
Don’t know how he could have. I don’t know my cat’s name. I mean, I know what we call her…
When I saw the headline I was trying to imagine what a ‘cat rolling pin’ might be.
A rolling pin made from a (dead?) cat?
A rolling pin for use on cats? (How?)
Sadly (fortunately), the answer is more prosaic – and definitely less bizarre – than my imagination.
By the way, “the d*g lovers on this site” – what’s with that? We have heathens in our midst? 😉
cr
Very cool Pallas’s cat vid!
Speaking of remarkable cats. There’s a book some may have heard of: Making Rounds With Oscar. The story of a cat who lives in a nursing home and snuggles/spends time with dying patients. If the cat detects a patient has died, it either stays outside the patient’s door or (if the door is open) goes inside, stationing itself on the patient’s bed until an attendant arrives. Oscar certainly earns his keep.