Kitten in Peril

A few nights ago, I nearly lost Ebony for good. He had stormed off in a huff because I kicked him out of the room. I was putting Stella (the new pup) to sleep and when she had dropped off, Ebony, who had insisted on being in the room, started creating a ruckus, waking her right back up again.

So I gathered him up and threw him out. Bad move. As it is, Ebony was jealous of the pup and my attention to the pup and he's extraordinarily sensitive. I went back to trying to get Stella to sleep but she was up now and restless. She couldn't drop off. After trying for half an hour more, I abandoned all attempts, and just switched off the light and locked the door. Stella is starting to know bedtime and she is a smart pup. She cries for a while if I leave her alone without having put her to sleep, but then she settles.

Anyway, I went to my room and settled on the bed to watch a Korean comedy on YouTube. Sheba leapt up to join me. I figured Ebony was off somewhere in high dudgeon. But half an hour later when he still hadn't shown up I started to get worried. I had stupidly left the front door open (bad move) and he has started to show an interest in the outside world. What if he had gone out?

I searched the house and he was nowhere to be found. By now, I was really alarmed. I started calling his name...and I heard a faint mewing coming from the direction of the big drain in front of the house.

Good God, had he fallen in there?

He had. I came out in my large, baggy night dress and leaned down to hear the faint scared mews of the little black cat.

It was so deep he could not jump out. It was taller than me. How on earth could I get in?

But it was my kitten, my baby and there was no way I was going to leave him there.

There is a broken ladder in the house. It is precarious when you lay it on solid ground...how would it be if I tried to stand it in the drain?

Well, no prizes for guessing there. Even more precarious. I ran into the house to get it, unfortunately disturbing Stella in the process as it was in the room I had laid her down in. But I had no time to pat her to sleep. My baby was in that big horrible drain and I had to get him out by any means.

I lowered the ladder into the drain and tried to stand it up there.  It took some doing. Now, as I have said, this ladder is broken. Which means climbing down it, the rungs could break.

But Ebony could not be coaxed to climb the ladder on his own. So there was no help for it. I would have to go down. I glanced around at my neighbours, all those quiet, gracious houses, mellow with sleep.

I started to step down tentatively. False start! Nearly fell there...but bit by bit, I lowered myself down until I got to the bottom of the drain. I scooped up my wet, dirty, frightened kitten and lifted him out of there. Sheba who had come outside to watch curiously, followed him as he shot back into the house.

I carried the ladder back in and then locked the door. And decided that what Ebony really needed was a good bath. I had bought the kitten shampoo a little while earlier but could never bring myself to bathe the little mites...now I would have no choice...Ebony was stood under the tap and then I rubbed the shampoo into his fur...he struggled some...but I was relentless.

Then the drowned rat of a kitten emerged from his bath, and I dried him with one of the doggies' towels. Not perfectly and he soon pushed his way out of the towel to take over the job himself. Sheba tried to help but it was too big a job for even her determined tongue (I know all about her determined little tongue because I wake up to it licking me every morning).  I stroked Ebony for a while...but he kept getting out of my reach to get on with the task of drying himself.

And then, we all fell asleep, my two kittens and I, me, more glad than I can say that they were both safely asleep next to me.