So it’s week 753 of all being at home together or at least that’s what it feels like so I thought I’d teach myself a new skill. What can I teach myself though? Well, as you all know I love the great outdoors and all the sounds and smells that the outdoors has to offer so when I’m inside I can’t quite get close enough to the nature to get the full scent and sound. Every time I get near I doink my head on something hard, cool and smooth which stops me getting to the bird down below. Mummy says it’s called a window and it’s made of something called glass which you can see through if you’re not blind like me. All I know is it can be quite useful when catching insects and moths in the flat as I can use it to trap whatever I’m chasing against so I stand a better chance of gobbling it up! Millie likes to lie against the window when the sun is shining through, I do this sometimes but mostly I just listen to all the birdies in the tree and when mummy opens the window I can smell all the outdoor smells inside.
When I get up on the window sill and reach up I can just about reach the edge of the open window with my front paws, only just though and only if I stand right up on my tippy paws. Well I know from when I get up onto the side of the bath and jump up onto ledges and the cat perches that if I can reach with my paws and get them onto the ledge even just a little bit I can climb up there. It might take a bit of practice but I’m a determined little cat as I’m sure you all know already and so I will give it a try.
So the other day when I was wandering around inside trying to find something to do I thought it would be a great idea to see if I can get closer to the fresh air smells and noises. I hopped up onto the window sill and from there I could smell the lovely fresh outdoors, I could hear the noises of the birds outside and the people in the distance in the park. I raised my head up high to see if I could tell how far away the smells were coming from, I could feel the breeze coming down from the window on the tip of my nose, it didn’t feel like it was very far away so I reached up with my paw and found a little, narrow ledge, just enough to get the tip of my paw 🐾 over. I could feel the breeze strongly on my paw, making the fur in between my toes flutter in the breeze. It felt lovely and cooling on my little pink toes. Now I was really excited and even more determined to explore this new place.
I reached up with my other paw and grabbed hold of the tiny ledge, now what? I tried to do a little jump to get me going but I knew really that it was just to high to jump from standing so that didn’t work. Hmm what else can I try? Normally when climbing a tree I reach up and grab on with my front paws, get a good from grip and then start climbing with my back paws, again getting a good firm grip with each one and climbing up. Maybe this would work, so I reached up with one back paw but the surface was too hard and slippy to get a good grip on, my paw just slipped and I was back to standing front paws outstretched as far as they could and tummy on full show to anyone outside. There was only one thing for it, I need to regroup and think this through, my front legs were starting to get a bit tired. I let go of the window ledge and went off for a snack and a nap to recover and get back to full fighting strength. I dreamt of climbing the tallest trees and scaling the hardest peaks known to Cat. I am after all a master tree climber so if anyone can scale this tall slippery surface it’s me.
Once I had rested I went back to the window, fresh and ready to take on the challenge. I reached my front paws up and gripped hold of the ledge, I decided that I would just go for the brute strength option and so I pulled with all my might and heaved myself up by my front paws, as I moved up the window, my back paws got some grip and so I pushed with them and pulled with my front paws. I could hear a gently thud, thud as my paws touched the glass and then before I knew it I was at the top, I was on the ledge, I’d made it! I could feel the breeze on my tummy the noises from outside loud and clear, I could feel the narrow ledge under my paws and the cool glass against my side holding me in. There was just enough open space for me to be able to stick my nose through to smell the outdoors but I couldn’t, no matter how hard I pushed, make the gap any bigger nor fit any more of my head through the gap. The outside world was teasing me, allowing me to get closer but not close enough to escape through. Still I could sit up here out of everyone’s way and just watch the world go by outside, it’s one of my most favourite things to do. Then mummy came in and saw me. “Jenny, how on earth did you get up there?” she said as she came over to make sure I was ok and give me a little well done stroke, then she said “Well you’re such a clever girl and so good at climbing and exploring you were bound to figure that out sooner or later.” She left me alone to enjoy my victory, and view. Then after a while I realised that I needed to get down, this was going to be tricky, if going up was hard, going down is going to be even harder. Normally when climbing a tree I get down backwards and the back legs provide the grip and stop me sliding all the way down, they allow a controlled decent. The glass was too slippy though to use my back paws, normally I would just know how high I climbed and could jump down if I couldn’t climb down. The window though has what mummy calls blinds on, which I don’t want to get tangled in and the window sill has mummy’s ornaments on. I’m not really sure what ornaments are but the one time I broke one, even though mummy said it was ok as it was an accident I could tell she was upset from her voice, I don’t want to make mummy upset, specially when she’s just said what a good girl I am so I shouted for her to come and see me. Mummy, mummy I shouted at the top of my voice, come and look at me again! Hopefully she would come over and help me get down.
As you know mummy doesn’t always make things easy on me so for me to get down mummy didn’t just come along and pick me up, she came over gave me a stroke and told me that as I was so clever getting up onto the window I must be clever enough to get down again. After moving the ornaments she tapped on the window sill so I could work out how far away it was from and said “come on Jenny, you can get down from there”. I had used up so much energy working out how to and then actually climbing the window that my brain just couldn’t judge the distance enough for me to jump down. Knowing that mummy was there to help me I sat and meowed at her until she scooped me up, gave me a cuddle and set me back down on the floor. “Maybe next time sweetie” she said. Since I climbed the window the first time I’ve done it again and again and can get up there really easily now, just a couple seconds and I’m up, I’ve now learnt how to get back down again too! Sometimes mummy helps me and sometimes she just says “Come on Jenny I know you can do it you’re just being lazy”. No mummy I’m not being lazy I just want an excuse for a quick cuddle and a stroke.
This story is just my way of showing you that no matter what being perfectly imperfect doesn’t mean you can’t imagine, find new challenges or conquer something new. I am proud to say I am an adventure cat.
Jenny’s Story 