Cats DO Land on their Feet

Soooooo OMG. Louis lost one of his lives last night for sure!

Background: Louis, my boy cat, likes to spend 90% of his time out on my deck. He is usually very good about his deck time and leaves my plants alone and behaves quite well.

Last night around midnight Louis decided to jump up and sit on the "wall" of my deck- that is the wall that makes my deck private and separate from the roof of my building (which happens to be incredibly steep.) I heard him jump up and got out of bed, yanked him off the wall and gave him a spank. Obviously this was a big deterrent because 30 seconds later he was back up on the wall. I decided to let him be, as it was a beautiful night and I figured he probably just wanted to look around.

Next thing I knew, I saw his shadow on the wall... ascending the steep roof. I panicked and tried to get him down, but by that point he was up on the main (flat) part of the roof. The Dude mumbled something to placate me to the effect of "cats climb, he'll be fine on the shingles" and promptly drifted off to sleep.

After ten or fifteen minutes went by I suddenly heard the heart-stopping sound of claws "toboganning" down the shingles of the roof. The descent was stopped with a sudden "thud" at which point I (again) lept from bed, exclaiming "Oh my god, he's on the eaves!!" Yea... no. He was not on the eaves. He was gone!

At this point my heart broke into a zillion pieces because, although Louis is a naughty boy at times, I still love him with all my heart and three floors is a loooong way to fall. (Well, four, if you count his slide from the top of the roof.)

The Dude grabbed my keys and some shoes and raced outside to inspect the damage. By the time I'd gathered myself enough to put ON my shoes and get outside I found him in my landlady's yard (below my apartment) with a struggling ball of hair and claws.

We got Louis up to the apartment and I gave him a bowl of "treat" so I could inspect him while he was distracted. I found no broken bones and no "firm spots indicating internal bleeding" so I let him be and collapsed into bed... upon which I went to sleep when the shaking stopped.

I think I'm going to stop at a pet store on my way home to price out leads and harnesses. I don't want to deny him his outdoor pleasures but I sure as hell don't want to go through another incident like THAT one!!!