Cats have an adveturous nature. Sometimes a bit too adventurous. So Christine and I always call all of our cats inside in the evening so we can rest assured that they won't get into trouble in the middle of the night. Especially Flora and Thomas, our little ones. They're still too unexperienced to be left outdoors the entire night. Even if they wouldn't really mind themselves; on the contrary...
So a couple of nights back, I went outside to call our cats when it was time to go to bed. Flora, Canelle and Blu quickly responded to my call and happily entered our house in search of a late supper. Thomas, however, was nowhere to be found. I called and I called... and suddenly, I heard a faint "meow" coming from the northerly border of our field. I called again and once more I heard Thomas replying. His "meow" sounded a bit afraid. Oh no, what's he been up to this time? I took a torch and went into our field. It was utterly dark. But the "meow" got louder. Yes, it definitely came from the edge of our field, by those oak trees on the border. There's a well over there so maybe he went for a late-night swim? It wouldn't be the first time he came back in a wet suit. But what made me anxious was that he didn't seem to come any closer himself. As if he were trapped somewhere. Slowly I came nearer to the trees and his cries definitely came from over there. Cats... trees... I understood that he had climbed in one of them and didn't want to come down anymore. Thomas is a very good climber and I had already seen him go up and down trees before. His "meow" also sounded very close by so he couldn't be all that high. Or could he? I pointed my torch upwards, hoping to find the reflection in his eyes soon. He had to be right above my head somewhere. So why couldn't I see him?
And then... finally, I saw the reflection. My mouth fell open wide. As I said, I've seen him climb a tree before. A couple of metres and back. But what I saw then filled me with horror. He was somewhere near the top of that tree! Christine had also arrived in the mean time and while she kept calling Thomas, hoping that he would still come down on his own, I went back to the house to get our ladder. Although I wasn't very optimistic. Our ladder consists of three parts and reaches about 5,5-6m high. My impression was that Thomas had climbed a whole lot higher than that.
It wasn't all that easy to install the ladder against the tree with all of those branches in the way. But I managed to put it more or less stable against the main trunk. And up I went. Higher and higher in the direction of the twinkling eyes and the desperate cries. Obviously the ladder wasn't big enough. Trembling of fear, I climbed so high that my feet were standing on the penultimate spoke and my left arm was holding the trunk very tightly. Fortunately there wasn't a lot of wind because the slightest breeze made the trunk swing. Way too much to my liking. But there I was. And Thomas... was still about 2m above my head. I kept calling him and eventually he carefully tried to come down. He extended his paws towards me. He twisted and turned his body around the branch he was sitting on. Finally he managed to turn himself in such a way that he could climb down with his bottom first. Until he arrived at the branches right above me, but still too far away for me to be able to grab him. And when he saw my arms reaching out at him, he fled further and further away from me again, onto those branches which were not very thick at all. Nothing seemed to work anymore and I climbed down in despair, hoping that Thomas would follow my example.
Fortunately there was still Christine. She had gone back to the house to get some tuna. Thomas is a very good eater - to say the least - and a bit of tuna would certainly attract his attention. So I went back up, with some tuna in my hand. And indeed, it didn't take long to get his interest. I put the tuna on a fork right above me on a place where I hoped to be able to grab him. And after some hesitation, Thomas moved back towards the safety of the trunk. Finally I managed to grab him, albeit only just and not without danger of falling myself. Thomas clenched the branches with every claw he had so I had to use considerable force to drag him off and hold him close to my chest. But at last I had him. I climbed down again very carefully and under protest from Thomas who tried to grab every branch within his reach. But eventually, after having tried for about an hour, we were both back on the ground, safe and sound.
In the house, Thomas received a very nice treat under the form of a big plate of tuna. And afterwards he came to thank me with a lot of purrs and friendly gestures. We hope that he's learnt his lesson because when I went back the following day to look at that tree, to see where exactly Thomas and I had been... no... please... not again... :-)
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