test please delete

[NickFitz]

Whilst posting on CUK at the same time?

Yes, that came to you live and direct from the doctor's back yard via my phone

At that stage, we only had one length of ladder which the roofers had left in the doctor's yard, which wouldn't even reach a first floor window in these rather tall Victorian houses. So this had been manhandled up the fire escape in the doctor's yard, and then placed on the rail of that and spanning our yard, resting on the roof a few yards away from the cat, as close thereto as it would go. But the cat refused to walk across the sloping roof to it; something about that side of the roof seems to have spooked it, and it's steering clear of it as much as possible, even though that's the side it lives on

Then one of the neighbours managed to borrow another piece of ladder from an uncle who lives nearby. But they were different widths, so they wouldn't slide into each other. I made the mistake of mentioning that I used to be in the Scouts, whereupon I was pressed into service to lash the two pieces of ladder together, despite protesting that I hadn't lashed anything since I was about twelve.

The idea was to put it against the back of next door on the other side, as the cat had shown willingness to go to the edge of the roof there. I pointed out that we should perhaps take the two bits of ladder there before lashing them together, so we did that, and I set to work with an old clothes line that was lying about in one of the yards.

I can't say that lashing two bits of ladder together is a good idea, or at least not the way I did it. However, the ladder was long enough to be raised up and rested against the edge of the roof, though it bent alarmingly in the middle and seemed far from safe.

However, the cat lover who'd brought the second bit decided he was going up anyway; so my upstairs neighbour and I braced ourselves against it, trying to make sure it didn't slip, and expecting it to give way at any moment and deposit him on our heads, breaking everybody's necks in the process.

But it held, and he made it up to where he could reach over the edge of the roof. The cat, naturally, retreated back up the roof out of reach. He spent a few minutes making various entreaties, which it conspicuously ignored. Finally, he very cautiously started back down the ladder, whereupon the cat immediately came to the edge of the roof again. He tried going back up a step, and the cat backed off. So he gave up and, to everybody's relief, made it down safely.

The cat has come and sniffed around the top of the ladder multiple times, and could easily get down, but still seems suspicious of it. So we've all given up and retreated inside for now, to give it a chance to come down in peace.

Apparently the damn thing's been up there all last night and today, so why it doesn't just come down and go and get its dinner, I do not know

More on this story as we get it…

[NickFitz]

Apparently the cat's still up there

Yet another neighbour has gone off to try and borrow a proper set of ladders from her cousin. At least the damn animal's inspiring a groundswell of community spirit

[WTFH]

Have you got any deep heat? NLUK might be able to help.

[Alias]

[Alias]

ommm...

[Alias]

I need a holiday

[NickFitz]

Cat Down!

The other ladder proved to be an extending one that was only ten feet long. This was completely useless; the cat was on a roof above the first floor. I'm on the first floor, and my rooms are between nine and ten feet high. So are the ones downstairs, so this ladder only just reached halfway to the lowest point of the roof

The RSPCA weren't in, and the Cats Protection League apparently don't do roofing work.

So we were left with the dodgy two-bit ladder again.

We took it down, not helped by the top half bending over to one side at about thirty degrees when we pulled it away from the wall, but the backyards are long here so we could let it crash to earth without it killing any of us. Then I undid my rubbish lashings and started again. I gave it more of an overlap, and started by lashing a couple of steps on each half together. Then I put in side lashings at two places, and made sure they were good and tight. With that done it was much more rigid, so the intrepid cat fancier from down the way was happy to go up it again.

He lured the cat down the roof with a couple of treats; it was well hungry by this time, so it went for those. He took things slowly, luring it closer and speaking very gently to it, and finally it got into a position where he was able to grab it by the scruff of the neck. The damned ungrateful animal immediately started struggling and scratching at him, and he ended up having to descend the ladder one-handed, with a writhing cat held out at arms length

Then we had to get the ladder down; we tipped it back away from the wall until it was vertical, then let it fall backwards. Just then, he finally lost control of the struggling cat, which he was trying to calm down over to one side of the yard, and the falling ladder came within a foot or so of braining the damn thing as it made a bolt for the gate

So the cat is down, the ladders have been unlashed and returned to their owners, and everybody's happy

[NickFitz]

After all that cat-related brouhaha it was a bit late to start cooking, so I went down the chippy for cod and chips

[mudskipper]

Cat Down!

The other ladder proved to be an extending one that was only ten feet long. This was completely useless; the cat was on a roof above the first floor. I'm on the first floor, and my rooms are between nine and ten feet high. So are the ones downstairs, so this ladder only just reached halfway to the lowest point of the roof

The RSPCA weren't in, and the Cats Protection League apparently don't do roofing work.

So we were left with the dodgy two-bit ladder again.

We took it down, not helped by the top half bending over to one side at about thirty degrees when we pulled it away from the wall, but the backyards are long here so we could let it crash to earth without it killing any of us. Then I undid my rubbish lashings and started again. I gave it more of an overlap, and started by lashing a couple of steps on each half together. Then I put in side lashings at two places, and made sure they were good and tight. With that done it was much more rigid, so the intrepid cat fancier from down the way was happy to go up it again.

He lured the cat down the roof with a couple of treats; it was well hungry by this time, so it went for those. He took things slowly, luring it closer and speaking very gently to it, and finally it got into a position where he was able to grab it by the scruff of the neck. The damned ungrateful animal immediately started struggling and scratching at him, and he ended up having to descend the ladder one-handed, with a writhing cat held out at arms length

Then we had to get the ladder down; we tipped it back away from the wall until it was vertical, then let it fall backwards. Just then, he finally lost control of the struggling cat, which he was trying to calm down over to one side of the yard, and the falling ladder came within a foot or so of braining the damn thing as it made a bolt for the gate

So the cat is down, the ladders have been unlashed and returned to their owners, and everybody's happy

1) All this talk of lashings - were you in the boy scouts?
2) How the feck did puss get up there in the first place?

[NickFitz]

Woman upstairs' cat has got out on the roof and is stuck, so now we're all dicking about in next door's yard and up their fire escape with ladders and things

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