The New Year's Eve Adventure of Alex the Cat

I'm feeling melancholy right now. Probably because I just saw Marley and me and the tears are still dry in my eyes. Yes, you can guess how it ends: a great dog's life, the full deal. Ok, and my son is leaving for Iowa tomorrow, and work starts again on Monday, and my bike was stolen. Oh, and I'm sleepy. I know, I've got my health, and my family. Oh, I better knock on some wood because I'm crying about nothing.

On New Year's Eve, Alex, our cat, got scared by our neighbor's dogs and ran up a tree--not just any tree-- one that was about 40 feet tall with few branches and an incline close to straight up! Once he was at the top, he realized what he had done but could not come done. This started at about 1pm in the afternoon. We went and had coffee and returned, but still Alex was in the tree (about 3pm). Randy rigged an old recycling bin and somehow got it almost to where Alex was--but still Alex had to come down a bit--and even then, would he go into the bin? At about 4:30, I finally visited fire station number 9 hoping they would help, but they wouldn't come (they had good firefighter logic about why they wouldn't come, but still I left heartbroken and scared for my cat). At about 5:30, Kate and I decided to go to First Night--Randy decided he needed to stay because if Alex came down Randy said he needed to be there in order to lower Alex down. I left not thinking Alex was going to make it. At about 11pm, Kate and I decided we couldn't make it anymore--we were too tired and also very curious about Alex. When we got home, straightaway--we used a flashlight and looked for Alex in the tree. Well, we could see he was no longer in the tree --but did he fall? We ran into the house, and Randy reported that Alex made it down to the next little section (still 35 feet up) and Randy used a laser and coaxed Alex into the bin. He couldn't believe Alex went into the bin! He was so happy! He then lowered the bin down quickly and Alex was safe. Yeah! It made us all know how much we love Alex and are glad he is part of our family.