All of you know by now how much I love climbing, wether it’s our indoor cat trees or real trees outside. Before you came even blink I’m already half way up and heading for the top. Well the other week mummy and I were going out walkies and she decided to ‘mix it up a bit’ that’s mummy term for me getting a bit bored with our normal walkies route and need something different to challenge and excite me again. I knew something was up because even before I walked out the door of our home mummy clipped the lead on, normally she lets me get all the way along the corridor and down the stairs before the lead gets hooked on so I knew I was in for something different. As I headed off for the corridor mummy said “not today Jen, we’re going the other way today.” and I felt a gentle tug on my lead and the other door open and off we went down the stairs to ‘the other outside’. I don’t like this side as much as it’s got a hard floor rather than grass and all the big noise machines that the humans use to move about in go this way but the noise machines do smell interesting and so I stop and have a good sniff every little while.
Mummy was off on a mission though, “come on Jen” she said, “no time to hang around”. So off we went with mummy practically dragging me along! Well, that might be a slight exaggeration but us cats don’t do walking like dogs, we like to amble about, going this way and that, stopping to sniff things and follow interesting scents and wandering off in a different directions. So this was not going to be as fun as normal I thought until mummy and I got to the end and then I started to remember, this is where mummy took me a long time ago, a new bit of secret garden that no one else ever seems to go to, somewhere with new smells and sounds. I could smell the grass and hear the trees rustling and off I went, heading in their direction, walking faster and faster until I felt the cool, soft grass under my paws and then I was off, running along towards the sound of the trees.
I could hear the familiar noise of the people in the park and the birds tweeting temptingly in the trees. I could smell where Mr. Fox had been and all the other little animals too. Oh! There was so much to explore. First on the list was the trees of course, before mummy could say anything I was up the first one like the true tree climbing pro that I am. Up, up, up as far as mummy would let me, then back down again and off to find the next one.
Although I love climbing, not every tree is the perfect one to climb so I chose very carefully which ones I go up. The trunk can’t be too hard and smooth or otherwise even my sharp claws can’t get a grip properly, some of the trees have funny trunks which seem to shed their bark in big pieces which stops me gripping properly and clogs my claws with bark so these aren’t any good either. There are also some really, really big trees and these are very tricky too, when I’ve tried climbing these ones my legs don’t reach far enough round to get a good enough grip so these ones are out too. Then there’s those trees mummy calls ‘Goldilocks trees’ they the perfect ones. They aren’t too big or too small and they have soft or rough trunks, these are the ones which make the best climbing trees where I can really get my claws into them to get the best grip to be able to climb as high as I want…..or really as high as mummy will let me.
After I’d explored everywhere and climbed a whole heap of trees mummy said it was time to head back home but I was having so much fun I really didn’t want to leave. There were so many more trees to climb and places to explore but she promised me that we would come back a bit more often so that I could enjoy finding and climbing all the trees that I wanted to. Each tree is different and gives me a different experience, some have really tall straight trunks and I go straight up and down again. Some have branches for me to go out onto, climb at a different angle and have somewhere to perch where I can take in everything around me. They’re all different but equally fun to explore and each one gives me a unique challenge to figure out how to reach the top.
What a great walkies that turned out to be, I climbed and climbed and climbed till my legs were so tired I couldn’t climb anymore, mummy said I climbed the most trees I had ever done in one day, a new personal best of 10 trees. I just had to have a little lie down and found a little pile of sandy dirt to roll around in, even when resting you can still have fun. Then as I lay there rolling around, I suddenly realised how long mummy and I had been out for and just as mummy said “come on Jenny it’s time to think about heading back home” I felt my tummy starting to grumble from all the exercise and exploring I’d done.
Whilst climbing is really fun and for me not like exercise at all it can be really tiring so I thought that maybe it was time to head home for some dinner…
… and a nap
Jenny’s Story 