66. Humpty (1/2)

Our neighbour John (his name has been changed) tells us that their cat, Humpty (his name has been changed) likes to climb onto the side of the bathtub, this way he can jump onto the window sill and access the outside world. Once Humpty is up there he loves strutting along the roof tops and the garden walls (our roof top - our garden wall) but never mind, Humpty is cool and so is John.

Humpty is sometimes feeling braver than usual and he has an adventurous streak (I do too so I understand Humpty) and when he is in that particular frame of mind he jumps (falls?) into our garden.

The problem is that he is then trapped in our small completely walled-in garden. He cannot get back up. He tries but he can't. We think this may have something to do with his weight. Humpty is well fed on rich quality food and apart from the strutting on the roof tops he probably doesn't exercise much. John thinks it is because we do not keep our garden furniture table close enough to the wall and to the low roof. John argues that Humpty could get onto the table and then onto the roof and then back in through their bathroom window.

A few nights ago, I was woken up in the middle of the night by some strange noises but as they were not that loud I just went back to sleep. When I found out what the fuss had been about I congratulated myself for staying in bed. 

Humpty had been miaowing and scratching and making an awful lot of noise and this had alerted John. John had patiently got out of bed and gone to the bathroom. The window had been left opened and so he called Humpty. He had to be loud enough to be heard and quiet enough not to wake the neighbours (us). Not easy, I'll grant you that. But poor Humpty was really stuck and could not find any way up (the garden table was annoyingly and very inconsiderately sitting in the middle of the terrace). The more his owner called, the more distressed he became, and the noisier. Between the owner and the pet stood a fairly high brick wall, a small outbuilding and an entire family snoring peacefully. 

John scratched his head and went back into his house. He found a basket with  two handles, made it into a cat basket with a cushion in it and maybe I imagine a little treat for the agitated animal. He found a length of rope which he attached to the basket. He went to get his step-ladder (all this in the middle of the night) and positioned it against the separating wall - thus finding himself even closer to the sleepy heads of the family who lives next door (mine). When he got to the top of the ladder he gently lowered the basket into the neighbours  property (ours). Then he called his cat and Humpty obediently (definitely a treat in there) jumped into the basket. John then gently pulled the rope back and slowly brought the basket - and Humpty - back to the safe haven of his home.

Operation rescue trapped cat 001 complete. And successful. 10/10 for John.