We had our kitten up a tree drama. Kent's been determined to teach the cats about the outdoors. "If they get out, I want them to know how to get back in," he says, reasonably enough. While I know they're going to get out some day and would like them to have some coping skills when they do, I'd prefer they didn't get out period. So I've not been encouraging the outdoor education project.

Not long after K got home he went out on the back porch to supervise the kitty explorations. Seems Sundance, when startled, bolts for the safety of indoors. Sutra, the one we don't think of as much of an explorer, is the one who got away. K captured him in the alley beside the house but the little guy got wiggy and burst free; around the house they went. When I heard K call, Sutra had already climbed a tree and was a fluffball in a crook where the trunk split into two narrower limbs. "Ee," he said. K called to him while I went about doing some yard work -- sweeping the leaf litter & dog shit from the concrete pad, turning the kitchen waste into the compost. K finally climbed within reach of the cat, was able to scratch his head, and Sutra liked that, but cat was in tree and that was that.

Yes, we got him down. Sun going down Kent managed to climb close enough to grab Sutra's neck skin, while I prodded kitty's butt with a long white pole. K got the cat out of the crook, passed him to me, then climbed down past my perch and I handed Sutra down to K on the ground. Whew. No trauma, not even additional scratches.