Gray

Gray had never been outside before, but he managed to escape his house in Livingston, run across the street, and climb a Live Oak tree where he soon discovered he did not know how to climb down. For an eight-month-old, Gray is a big boy who still has some kitten-like hyperactivity that makes it hard to stay still very long. When I first arrived after his one night in the tree, Gray was at the top of a long angled branch, but, by the time I was ready to install my rope in the tree, he had come down quite a bit and stopped where the branch became too vertical to manage. I set my rope in his original high spot and climbed up to him.

Gray is a friendly, sociable boy, but all this activity and being outside made him nervous. Still, he greeted me and let me pet him right away, but soon his nervousness and kitten energy made it necessary for him to climb higher. I tried to block his path with my hand, but he slipped around it. I worked my way up a little higher, and, again, we had a friendly visit, but, again, he decided he needed to go up a little higher. I repositioned again, and he came down to me a bit. I was getting the cat bag ready on my arm just to grab this boy and put an end to all this activity, when, to my surprise, he came toward me to step on my lap. Once I saw he was doing that, I spread the bottom of the cat bag on my lap and was pleased to watch him step on my lap and curl up as if this was our daily routine. Sweet, trusting cat. I gently pulled the sides of the bag up around him and took him down thus ending his first, and hopefully last, outdoor adventure.