Oliver

How to Fly a Cat

The upstairs den had two big windows that looked out over the yard and the pear trees, especially. Why especially? Well, the tall old pear trees were a vital part of Oliver's ingenious plan to rescue Pete from the Sticky monster. There was no way for them to get Pete in on the ground floor, so the only other option was to skip it. The floor, that is.

Oliver was up, sitting on the window ledge in one fluid leap, smiling his greatest Cheshire-y grin as he perused the scene before him. Even Harry got excited about the idea. There was, after all, something deliciously naughty about him assisting a cat launch. It wasn't like Pete was not a nice cat or anything, but he was still a cat. And they were going to make him soar. How delightful. Harry laughed so much he started to bark with glee. Oliver reprimanded him- they couldn't get caught, but they were both in such good moods, nothing could ruin it.

In two thwacks of Harry's happy tail, Cracker appeared in a flash of blue feathers on the other side of the window screen. There was a nice ledge even on the outside, giving Cracker lots of room to perch. He had heard Harry's funny little laughing barks while he was up hunting bugs in the Oak tree. As Oliver and Harry quietly filled him in on the plan, Cracker's eyes took on a mischievous gleam. This was going to be a good one, he thought. No wonder Harry was laughing and Oliver looked like he'd swallowed the proverbial canary.

They hashed out the minutiae of the plan, considering and then dismissing such suggestions as using balloons to lift Pete up high enough to reach the window ledge (where would they ever get enough?), teaching Pete how to climb a metal ladder (impossible!), and even building a cat-sized slingshot (Harry's idea). The final solution was what had come to Oliver in a flash when he was looking out at those pear trees, stretching their branches toward the house like a leafy helping hand. It was like they were grown for this very purpose.

Cats are wonderful tree climbers. They have zero trouble getting up many a tree. Some of them are so adept, it's like they can run right up it, like there's no such thing as gravity. However. Gravity is such a thing. And it makes the getting down from trees somewhat awkward when your claws all face one way. Head-first just isn't an option, and most would agree, neither is just letting gravity work and taking the quick route down. Besides being painful, having the ground rush up at you like that is very undignified, and not very feline at all, in the end. So, yes, cats are wonderful tree climbers.

Since Pete would only have to go up a tree and not back down, he shouldn't have any trouble with that part of the plan. In fact, Oliver thought Pete would enjoy it. The only potential problem lay in the space between the end of the tree branch and the window ledge. They'd have to choose the right limb, as it bent under Pete's weight it would still need to be high enough to reach the window. So that was one thing. But there was still that gap. Cracker and Oliver tossed ideas back and forth, ways to cross the gap. It would have to be a running jump, they figured. And quite a jump, really. They might need a good wind to help him soar along a little... If Pete was willing to try it. And they'd have to lose the window screen, of course. Cracker suggested they have something that Pete could cling on to, something that could hang out the window in case they needed to pull him in, so Oliver sent Harry off to find a big bath towel from the room with all the running water.

Now they just had to tell Pete the good news.