Chapter 1: My cat fell out the window (again)

Hey Guys, I'm thinking of writing a book, Marley Henry & Me:

Let me tell you about how we spent Saturday night. The weekend here was gorgeous, so we threw open our balcony doors all day and the animals spent long periods outside working on their tans. We were watching Henry carefully because he fell into our downstairs neighbor's window well about a week ago. However, he showed no inclination of climbing up on the ledge again so we figured he had learned his lesson. Silly us.
The little mastermind was waiting to gain our trust. When our backs were turned, he rubbed his little paws together, laughed villainously, and scooted out of sight around the ledge of our balcony.

About 15 minutes after Nick went to bed, I heard a scratch, scratch, scratch at the window. I opened the balcony door, assuming Henry had accidentally gotten locked outside. Instead, he was balancing precariously on the 1.5 inch window ledge around the corner from the balcony, pleading to be let in. Naturally, the window swings open, so there was no way to open the window without knocking the poor guy off.

I raced into the bedroom screaming for Nick (who thought there was a bungler and leapt out of bed with amazing speed and alertness for 12:15 at night).
Nick rushed to the balcony opened the casement window to try and coax Mr. H back down the two feet of ledge to safety.

This rescue operation lasted approximately 10 seconds until Henry took one final step and wobbled out of sight.

We heard a soft thud and his pitiful cry as he landed in a neighboring yard. Of course, this yard is gated, with a locking fence at the front entrance and a 10 foot retaining wall separating our two properties.

Down the stairs and out the door Nick and I ran to survey this latest dilemma. The locked gate and dark house led us to assume the residents were either asleep, or out for the night. With no way in, Nick was forced to climb the fence to reach poor, little Henry. The least conspicuous spot to attempt such a daring climb is an eight foot concrete post located on our side of the retaining wall.

I used my mighty muscles to boost Nick up the post, which he successfully climbed, only to find out there's an additional 4 foot drop on the other side (ouch!).

Luckily, Henry's no runner, so Nick easily caught the little devil and threw handed him gently to me on the other side of the fence. Then the three of us, cut and scratched (Nick and I), bruised (just Nick), and scared (Henry) trudged upstairs to end the eventful night with a sigh of relief. Needless to say, the balcony doors have been firmly shut (despite the almost-70-degree temps) this week and Lucy is the reigning favorite pet in our household.