Manly Monday: Bibi's Great Adventure

Bibi-Chan: Hi everyone! Do I have stuff to tell you! And let me start by saying that none of it is my fault, and #1 agrees! Yesterday, #1 had a friend to lunch. Friend arrived. They went to the kitchen and enjoyed a very nice, leisurely lunch. Shortly before 3pm, friend got up to leave, and an awful site greeted them as they got to the bottom of the steps leading up to the door: the door was open! It probably had been open ever since the friend had arrived. Now, the truly amazing thing is that Tama-Chan, Sei-Chan and even Genjis-Khan were IN the house! They had repeatedly walked past an open door and ignored it! I however, was nowhere to be seen. #1's heart sank. As you know, hunting season has started and gunshots are especially numerous on Sundays.

She saw her friend off and came looking for me. As she got to the edge of the garden, near the path that goes down to the stream, she heard a familiar scream, followed by lots more screams. That particular tone of banshee screaming is special to just me and my Mama-Tama. But she couldn't se me anywhere. Eventually she started looking up, and up, and UP! And there I was, miles up in the canopy screaming blue murder!

Can you see me? I was way up there, on the side branch of a side branch, at least 4 or 5m (12-15ft) up, if not higher. And the way I was screaming was familiar to #1: it was the I am utterly and completely terrified kind of scream. What to do? She went to get her tall ladder but couldn't get it to expand properly, so she only managed to get about 3 metres or so (10 feet) up and saw that I was as too far away still. So, she called in the cavalry, and Mr. E arrived about 15 minutes later. He managed to open up the ladder to its full height and climbed up there:

But I don't know Mr. E well, so I wouldn't come to him, so he had to come down, and told #1 that she would have to go up there. Fortunately, she is not scared of heights and so she clambered up to what was about 6 or 7 (20ft) metres by then. I was still out on a limb, so to speak...

Mr. E started to throw clumps of earth up to try and coax me over to where #1 was waiting. I got closer and eventually was just a foot away from her. In a leap of faith, she took her thick glove off and presented me with her hand. In the past, I have bitten and scratched her when I have been outside on a Houbibi jaunt, but this time I just sniffed her and eventually came a little closer, just enough for her to grab me by the scruff of the neck. She managed to get a decent hold on me and started climbing down one-handed. Finally, we reached the ground and she immediately ran into the house with me, and gave me lots of treats! Needless to say, Mr. E got strong coffee and chocolate cookies!

#1 tells me that, when she was a half-grown kitten, my  Mama-Tama had indulged in similar adventures a couple of times, but nobody had ever climbed quite so high. I tell you, though: I am glad to be home!!! And yes, I am feeling a little sheepish...