Cookie climbed up an apple tree while I was picking up windfalls for the sheep. I heard him yelling at me and took a few minutes to locate him in the tree. He told me he was stuck and needed to be rescued. After taking his photo I told him to calm down, he could get himself down. He hollered some more and tried to look helpless and pathetic. I explained to him that there is an old saying, “you never see cat skeletons in trees.”

When I was a kid I recall being very upset about my Blackie being stuck in a tree. It was dark out and I had been looking for him to come in for bedtime. I finally located him when I heard his meows coming from high up in a tree. I went back to the house, crying, begging my dad to help me get him down. That was the first time I heard the saying. My dad went to bed without helping. I went back outside and tried to talk Blackie down. He just kept meowing for help.  Mom yelled out the door, reminding me I still had to do the dishes before I went to bed. I cried almost the whole time I was washing the dishes…. Until I heard the unmistakable sound of Blackie jumping onto and hanging from the screen door. (This was how he let us know he wanted to come in. That poor screen was nothing but shreds by the time I left for college.)

Anyway, by the time I finished my story, Cookie had gotten himself down and had moved on to other things. I guess he just doesn’t appreciate my words of wisdom. It’s true, though. In all my 47 years I have NEVER seen a cat skeleton in a tree.