First things first:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVAN!!

Thanksgiving was quite eventful for our family. First of all, our cat got himself stuck up a tree for nearly 4 hours. Apparently we couldn’t just let him figure it out and climb down. He was first only halfway up and was meowing, so my dad stuck a bamboo pole at him. Dad thought that this would help him get down, but it scared Henry further up the tree. So he’s sitting up there, 25 feet in the air, and my sister calls the Animal Shelter, who tell us that he’ll come down when he’s hungry. So of course, this upsets my mother… and it’s Thanksgiving and we have skunks and racoons leaving in the neighbourhood.

When my Uncle and cousin arrived, my Uncle Jim said “Oh Daniel can climb up there!” But he didn’t seem to realize that the branches wouldn’t hold his 10 year old son. If it could hold a person, I would have already climbed up. My mom also said “If anyone was to go up, it should be Monica because he knows her. Henry loves her, he follows her around.” Then my Uncle said that he’ll climb out on the roof and reach across into the tree and grab him. My dad (slightly sarcasically) said, “Yea, but you’d have to jump at the tree, launch yourself towards the cat, grab him, toss him on the roof and then hopefully land in the tree.”

It ended up with my dad driving to Home Depot and buying a 30 foot ladder. I had a pillowcase and rope because I read on a website that if a cat is freaking out, you can put it in the pillowcase, tie it shut and lower it down. My dad and Uncle Jim were both trying to give me advice on what to do, such as tossing Henry on the roof. I said, “I’ll bring the pillowcase, but I’ll judge what is best to do when I get up there.” And my uncle said, “That’s the smartest thing you’ve said all day” but he meant it in a nice way.

I climb up to where Henry is and grab him by the neck. Pull him off the tree which he’s clinging to for dear life (all beauty and no brains) and put him on my shoulder/chest. I call down that it’s easiest to climb down with him, he wasn’t freaking out or scratching which was good. My dad is below stabilizing the ladder telling me where I was and when there was a branch. When I got a few rungs from the bottom I asked if my mom or sister could come take him into the house and shut the doors.

The best part — we then loaded the ladder back onto my dad’s truck (much to his dismay, as he wanted to keep it). Then he took it back to Home Depot and returned it! He said that his wife wouldn’t let him keep it and it didn’t fit inside the garage. Both statements were true.

Having the cat safe put everyone’s minds at ease. Case-In-Point: my mom, dad, Uncle Darrell, his girlfriend Janis, his friend Alex, and sort of my Uncle Jim all got “rip-roaring drunk” as mother likes to say.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!