Summer, a time long ago of sun and scents. Windows and doors open to embrace the floral air. Not a care in the world, whiling away the summer days, children and cats older now, more sensible, one would hope.
No, cat not more sensible, still learning, still curious, still irresponsible, still fostering a dangerous, reckless attitude left over from her kitten hood.
I was out. Went to see a friend. Left the children (teenage) and cat (also teenage) to look after each other, you would think that would be fine. It wasn’t. Sadie decided to explore (normal cat behaviour I hear you say) this was not normal for anyone. This was extreme sports even by cat standards.
Out of the bedroom fanlight window she hops (unnoticed by anyone, because after all who watches small upstairs windows on the off chance that their cat might pop out?) somehow she neatly jumps down and teeters along a narrow window sill outside the bedroom.
Not ground level, next floor up. (Still no one aware, daughter is in the room below doing her own teenage thing) When suddenly as she is looking out of the window, her cat flies past. Fast downwards. Accelerating swiftly towards the hard stone patio below.
Cats are not meant to fly, especially downwards.
Daughter rings me as she rushes to check on her flying feline. I tell her to check her cat out and ring me back, preparing myself to turn the car round and return home to deal with a potentially injured cat and a very distressed daughter.
Five agonisingly slow minutes later daughter rings me back, I am prepared for the worst when she tells me.
She’s fine mum, no blood, nothing seems damaged, but she smells lovely, she landed in the lavender bush.
What a relief. Thank goodness for fragrant plants and multiple cat lives.
At the time we had large flowering lavender plants all along the house wall, somehow with the luck of a nine lived cat Sadie had managed to drop neatly into the lavender bush cushioning her fall, and causing no injuries.
Never before had I been so relieved that I was a keen gardener, filling my garden with smelly shrubs.
Here she is by another window in a different house.
Sadie's cat blog. 