Our Ox in the Mire or The Great Cat Snatch

 It was a gray and dreary morning.  The Crumpley family had gathered, sleepy eyed and sluggish for their morning mush, when Lida looked around and said in dismay, "Where is Fluffy?  Has anyone seen her this morning?"  (It should be noted that "Fluffy" -whose actual name is Twix- is her cat and the first object of her affection in the morning.)  All confessed that they neither knew nor cared where the cursed cat was - it was time for breakfast!  After breakfast, the cat in question still not having made her appearance, there was a somewhat cursory search made for her.  "I'm sure she is outside and will come in when she is ready," was the careless reply from Lida's mother. 

Well, it turns out she was outside, but she could not come in.  Lida stood out on the deck and called for her, but she did not come.  Listening hard, Lida thought she could hear a cat's meow coming from the neighbor's yard.  Sure enough, it was discovered (eventually) that the cat was stuck - down the neighbor's chimney!  These particular neighbors are very kind, elderly people who just happen to be out of town for the week.  Great...just great.

Tyler, who has now earned the exalted title of The Great Cat Snatcher, hauled our ladder into the neighbor's backyard and scaled the roof.  He began his rescue with a rope and a pair of pants, but was unsuccessful in persuading the cat to "grab hold."  Then Andrew and Rachel conceived the idea of making a "net" out of denim and bating it with tuna.  What cat - stuck in a chimney or no - can resist the lure of tuna? 

 

Again, Tyler scaled the roof and lowered the tuna bag down to the bottom of the chimney.

 

It turns out that a cat that has been stuck at the bottom of a chimney can resist the smell of tuna - quite emphatically.  It also turns out that the bottom of the chimney is not flat, as we had supposed, but angled, making it more difficult to display the tasty treat to greatest advantage.

 

On to Plan C...Tyler affixed a loop of rope to a long pole and lowered that into the chimney.

 

Mere moments later we heard Tyler shout, "Got her!"  And he began tightening his noose over whatever part of the cat's anatomy he had managed to capture.

 Up, up, up he pulled until...

 

Free at last!!



 Tyler, The Great Cat Snatcher, has triumphed!!!

Twix (aka "Fluffy"), finally free from Cat Prison, was only too happy to avail herself of the previously disdained tuna before being bodily removed from the roof.

Peace is restored to the family's Sabbath.  The ox has been removed from the mire, the children are happy (and relatively clean) and we still lack on hour before Church!