Cat on a wire

Meet my cat Charlie. He is about 11 years old. He was my April Fool's Day present in 2002. My DH was sleeping because he was on shift-work and I decided to go to the ASPCA to look for a female cat that was spayed. I ended up with a male that was NOT neutered. Charlie picked me out of all the people there. He kept grabbing me through the cage. We have been through thick and thin with him. He had so many medical issues when I got him and I questioned my choice but I have to say, to quote my mother, "He's got personality, plus".

Not long after we got him he got out and I was devastated. He was gone all night but the next morning, as my DH went to leave for work, there he was, wanting in and waiting to be fed. We continued to let him out on his own until a neighbor complained and "pulled her husband's rank". If you are unfamiliar with that term, that is when a military wife thinks she has the rank her husband has and tries to use it to make you do something she wants or to justify her behavior. Nonetheless we started leash training Charlie. Boy was that scary. He nearly killed himself twisting around to get off his lead. We ended up putting him in a dog collar because he hated the harnesses and back then they didn't make them for cats so it didn't quite fit well. The end result was a cat on a leash and a neighbor that had a mouse problem, again.

Well, Charlie liked to roam and most leashes restricted him to a small area, which he hated. Then we had an epiphany. We had a beautiful Bradford Pear tree in our side yard in Charleston, SC. We decided to put a line from the back door out to the tree and attach his leash to that. He loved it. We soon discovered he could climb the tree and I have vague memories of being barefoot trying to climb the tree to keep him from strangling himself. We ended up putting a knot in the line to keep him from being able to get to the tree.

The funny part is that when we would tell people where we lived they would ask us if we were the people with the cat on a wire.

To this day, people that come to our house are amazed that he will go out on the zip-line. Now if only I could train my kids.