Several years ago, one of the kids’ dumber-than-dirt cats ran up the neighbor’s tree and wouldn’t come down. Meowed piteously for a couple of days.  The girls were almost in tears, thinking about their poor little kitty up in that tree.  Finally, they did what all kids on TV do….

….as it turns out, the Fort Worth Fire Dept. doesn’t DO cat-stuck-in-a-tree rescues.

So Paul did the “Dad” thing, even though his feeling was that if the cat got hungry enough, it would sure as shootin’ find its way out of that tree.

Up he went, way up high into this rickety OLD tree. The stupid cat was WAY out on a limb. Over the street.

Paul finally got within reaching distance of the cat, grabbed it by the scruff of the neck, and wriggled them both back to the tree’s trunk.

At that point, he thought he could let go of the cat and let it find its way down to the ground. No such luck. Darn critter was scared to death, and meowing loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear (and most of the neighbors had come outside to watch the show).

Paul was at a loss as to how to get both of them down without breaking any bones or getting clawed to death.

Then, inspiration hit.

He grabbed the cat by the scruff of its neck again, pried it loose from both him and the tree, held it out at arm’s length, then swung his arm (and the cat) to a point on the tree just below one of his feet.

That cat glommed onto the tree like Velcro.

Paul then shimmied down to below the cat (who was hanging onto the tree like grim death), grabbed it by the scruff of the neck once more, and repeated the action until the cat finally decided it was close enough to the ground to jump down and sprint across the street into our yard.

I was laughing so hard, I almost fell down….