Early Morning Drama

One of my morning rituals is to look out the window when I get into the shower. I get a good view of the neighbor's house and the street in front of my house. Most days I don't see much movement. Occasionally I'll see someone walking, sometimes accompanied by a dog. Yesterday when I looked out I didn't see much movement and was about to turn to the task at hand when I caught something out of the corner of my eye. Looking more carefully I realized that there was a black cat poised on the edge of the neighbor's roof. The house is one story tall so said cat was not that far off the ground. This was not a kitten, but a full grown cat.

The cat was on the portion of the roof where the house forms an L. As I watched the cat extended one paw toward the small roof over the door to the house. The roof is a simple shed roof and is maybe a foot wide. The cat put a small amount of weight on the extended paw. The cat quickly withdrew the paw as if the roof was hot and backed up the main roof. It then proceeded to the far end of the roof where it walked to the edge of the gutter and looked down surveying the bushes below. It backed away, then moved back to the gutter. When it backed away from the gutter again it moved several feet down the roof and repeated this exercise. I could just hear the conversation in its little cat head, "Maybe I can get down from this spot. No it's too high. There's nothing to jump onto. I'll have to find another spot. Well maybe it's not so bad. ... No can't do it. Maybe over there." After repeating this a couple more times, the cat found itself back at the spot where I'd first seen it.

At about the same time my neighbor, having heard the pitter-patter of little cat feet on the roof, opened the screen door. This additional perch seemed to give the cat an extra dose of courage. Using the roof over the door, it made its way from the main roof to the top of the screen door. It perched on the door for several minutes. I watched as my neighbor attempted to coax the cat off the door. She was too short to reach the cat, and the cat wasn't one of hers. This went on for a minute or two before the cat gathered up all its courage and leapt to the ground.

That ended the morning's drama and I went on with my shower.