Cat on a Cold Slick Roof

We sleep on the third floor with the window open.

My cat likes to wander out onto the porch roof to sharpen her claws and sometimes make her way down to the world below for a little night prowling.

One night in the not too distant past, the porch roof was covered in snow for the first time in my cat's history with this house.

2:30 am: I woke to scrabble, scrabble...CRASH...BARK, BARK, BARK!!!

I came downstairs to a broken living room window and a very excited dog.

There were cat prints leading away from the house and no blood, so I took that as a good sign. I went to the doors in case my kitty decided to return. No sign of her.

By the time I had cleaned up glass and covered the window with plastic, it was around 3:30 am and still no sign of my kitty.

It wasn't until the full light of day that we were able to figure out the sequence of events.

The cat went outside and slipped off the roof, hit the window below (breaking it) and landed in the flowerbox. She jumped from there to the ground and took off (to heal her wounded pride, no doubt). It's ok to laugh - she returned home by morning no worse for wear.

The glazier thanked me. In his 16 years repairing broken windows, this was a first. When he saw the job on the board, he was sure it was the result of a snowball fight. Now he has a new story to tell.

The next night we decided not to open the window enough for her to go out anymore. Unfortunately, as Feller was opening the window, cat tried to jump through the opening and hit her head on the window sash. I never said she was a smart kitty. I am sure she is down by a few lives by now.

GAB