Silly Old Cat

The cat crept cautiously along the branch, planting each paw carefully, as if using the knots and whorls of the bark to keep it anchored to the tree. Her mouth was opening and closing, calling for help from the people walking through the park below – some of them dashing to appointments or meetings; others entertaining dogs and children in the cool autumn air.

But the sound that came from the animal teetering among the topmost leaves of the tallest tree in the park, was unheard by any below, rushing about their day. Anyone but little Elsie McCloud that is. From her position wrapped up warm and snug in her pram, face pointing up to the clouds and cheeks flushing a rosy red with the cold, she could see the cat clearly and hear its mournful cries for help.

To start with, Elsie waved her chubby little arms in the air and giggled at the sight of the naked cat high up in sky. She had never seen a cat with no hair before and initially thought it must be a squirrel. But she had heard a cat miaowing before and even over the October breeze and the rustling of leaves across the grassy floor, she knew that sound.

Elsie loved cats. She loved the way they wiggled around her legs as she crawled along the bedroom floor at home and whipped her in the face with their tails. She loved filling her fists with their fur and rubbing her face along their soft fluffy fleece. And she loved how they cuddled up to her in bed at night, sharing their warmth as they slept.

But this cat made Elsie sad. It must be so cold up there without its fuzzy coat on. Elsie stopped waving her arms around and tucked them back inside her blanket. Her mum was busy chatting to the nice lady with bright cherry red lips that had been to the house before, so Elsie was able to lie in her pram and study the cat in more detail and think very hard about how to help it.

Scrunching up her nose in thought, Elsie thought that what the cat needed was a very, very long ladder to help it climb down the tree.

Suddenly, running across the park, came a group of men carrying something long and heavy. There was at least six of them – Elsie was too little to count but her big brother was 6 and it sounded like a good number. The men were very spread apart as they ran, thanks to the lengthy item they were carrying. They ran, panting, up to the tree and with all their strength pushed a huge extended ladder up against the trunk of the tree. The cat mewed patiently as it watched them work and Elsie held her breath with excitement as one of the men started to climb.

Elsie waved her arms in the air and giggled as the man climbed and climbed to the tip of the ladder, stretching and stretching towards the cat. But with a look of sadness on his face, he turned and shook his head at the group below and Elsie could see for herself that the ladder was not tall enough to reach the treetop. The cat continued to pace along the branch, watching the drama unfurl below.

Slowly, the man climbed back down the ladder and, continuing to shake his head at his friends, they picked it up once more and started to make their way back across the park.

Elsie pulled her arms back in underneath her blanket – the warmth helped her to think. She had seen a cartoon on the television that morning with some animals, dogs she thought, being called to rescue someone stuck up a mountain. Quickly, a new idea formed in her mind.

Mum and the red lipped lady stopped talking and looked up into the sky, distracted by a loud whirring sound coming from above them. From her cosy bed in her pram, Elsie could see clearly as a helicopter descended from the clouds, a group of men leaning out and pointing animatedly at the cat in the tree. As Elsie’s mum absent-mindedly tucked her blanket up to her chin, the little girl watched as the men lowered a ladder towards the trapped animal. They appeared to be shouting at the cat, hoping it would catch the end of the ladder itself and climb to freedom. But after a while, a man climbed tentatively down the ladder, reaching out an arm to the cat – calling to it to jump to safety.

The cat, watching the man curiously, lifted up its paw – Elsie held her breath, was she reaching out to take his hand? Bhut instead, the cat started to wash herself, paying particular attention to her whiskers.

The man frowned and climbed back up the ladder., once more shaking his head and the helicopter flew off into the sky.

Elsie frowned. Silly cat. Why didn’t it want to be rescued? Sighing to herself, she closed her eyes and enjoyed a brief moment of autumn sun warming her cheeks. The sensation brought a memory to mind of lying on a blanket in her garden during the summer and watching her brother play with his friends.

Without warning, her attention was drawn to a group of children laughing as they raced towards the tree. Shouting to each other in high-pitched sing song voices, the children pulled something heavy behind them, calling out instructions and pointing excitedly at the cat in the tree.

Elsie watched with delight, as the children pushed a large trampoline to the foot of the tree and started to shout to the cat, calling for it to jump to safety. One child, who looked extraordinarily like Elsie’s big brother, even leapt onto the trampoline and jumped as high as he could, to show the cat what she needed to do. Settled on all fours at the edge of her branch, the cat’s large blue eyes followed the boy’s every move. Elsie held her breath, was she going to jump? Would she make it?

But finally, after a few minutes of watching the scene below with interest, the cat stretched out its long legs, stuck its tail in the air and turned to sit the other way around with her back to the boy. The silly cat, thought Elsie, she was never going to get down from that tree and it must be so cold up there.

As the children tugged the trampoline back across the path, Elsie lay in her pram staying up into the sky and wondering what the cat would do now. She couldn’t stay up there all night.

Sensing she was being watched, the cat stood and stretched once more and looked down to where Elsie lay. With a contented mew, she stood up on her branch and gave herself a quick shake all over before jumping down to the branch below.

Elsie lay mesmerised as the cat, that had so far refused a ladder, a helicopter and a trampoline, jumped athletically from branch to branch, making the long descent from the topmost branch of the tree above to the damp autumn grass below. As she landed nimbly by the wheel of Elsie’s pram, the little girl laughed and clapped her hands in the air.

“Oops,” said Elsie’s mum and she bent to pick something up off the ground. “I don’t know why she loves that thing, it’s so old and has barely any fur left,” she laughed to her friend. Elsie giggled with glee and pulled the familiar, saggy, cat toy under her blanket and clasped it lovingly to her chest. It needed warming up after its adventure. Silly old cat.