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In Which It Is Discovered
Dec. 30th, 2008 05:24 pmThat Tiggers Don't Climb Trees.
Oh dearie me. Back from depressing day at the G to discover Dougal has been 20 feet up an ash tree for four hours, crying. Apparently Ms Shadow ran up and down it a few times to show him how to do it, and then sat around looking panicked and embarrassed, a bit like Sylvester's nephew calling for the paper bag. Smudge looked aloof and disdainful throughout. I produced a ladder, climbed to within a few feet of him and called him down. No luck. It's too steep for humans with no handholds or footholds and I could not persuade him to climb on to the offered broom. Eventually with dusk coming on I rattled his box of dry cat food and told him if he was still there in the morning I'd call the Fire Brigade. And left him to it in semi-despair.
He beat me to the kitchen. Hasn't climbed at all today, and is spending a fair bit of time hugging CJ the bear. Shadow meanwhile had the facts of life explained to her by one of the senior wattle-birds, who treed him at the end of a branch and explained how it goes in this oasis. YOU are here on sufferance. WE live here and YOU don't lay a claw on us. Get it right or you'll get the beaking of a lifetime. Eventually he allowed her to climb down and it looked like our Phantom/Eden wildlife coexistence reserve is going to continue. No reason for the birds to leave: we have everything they require and all they have to do is face down the cats (which they have been doing for years) and all is well.
Lovely b'day party chez M in Mt Evelyn. Big hugs all round....
Oh dearie me. Back from depressing day at the G to discover Dougal has been 20 feet up an ash tree for four hours, crying. Apparently Ms Shadow ran up and down it a few times to show him how to do it, and then sat around looking panicked and embarrassed, a bit like Sylvester's nephew calling for the paper bag. Smudge looked aloof and disdainful throughout. I produced a ladder, climbed to within a few feet of him and called him down. No luck. It's too steep for humans with no handholds or footholds and I could not persuade him to climb on to the offered broom. Eventually with dusk coming on I rattled his box of dry cat food and told him if he was still there in the morning I'd call the Fire Brigade. And left him to it in semi-despair.
He beat me to the kitchen. Hasn't climbed at all today, and is spending a fair bit of time hugging CJ the bear. Shadow meanwhile had the facts of life explained to her by one of the senior wattle-birds, who treed him at the end of a branch and explained how it goes in this oasis. YOU are here on sufferance. WE live here and YOU don't lay a claw on us. Get it right or you'll get the beaking of a lifetime. Eventually he allowed her to climb down and it looked like our Phantom/Eden wildlife coexistence reserve is going to continue. No reason for the birds to leave: we have everything they require and all they have to do is face down the cats (which they have been doing for years) and all is well.
Lovely b'day party chez M in Mt Evelyn. Big hugs all round....
