By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer
Wednesday’s story about Grumpy Cat winning near-3/4 million in a copyright infringement case reminded me of my experience in a cat house.
I’m always angered by news stories about abuse of cats. Especially when I risked life and limb to rescue one of the many cats my wife and I have adopted over the years.
I received a phone call from her one July day that our recently adopted kitty had found her way into a corner of the attic and wouldn’t come to an opening in the attic where my wife could catch her.
So, up into the sweltering attic I go.
With a flashlight, I could see kitty’s scared eyes. The attic had no floor, so I had to carefully crawl across 2 x 4 beams. Sweating profusely, I managed to grab the little darling. As I backed my way to the attic door above our laundry room, I slipped, and my legs went crashing through the ceiling above our front door.
Despite hanging from the beams with my armpits, I somehow managed to toss the cat through the hole to the floor, knowing, of course, cats always land on their feet.
My wife was laughing hysterically, as a pile of insulation followed the cat to the floor. You have to understand when she thinks something is really, really funny, she laughs so hard as to totally lose the ability to move and breathe.
I yelled for her to get a ladder. She did finally.
But it’s not tall enough to reach my feet.
With my life passing before me, I somehow managed to lower myself with my arms to the ladder and get down.
When I went to wash up, I noticed the little finger on my right hand was hanging sideways on the side of my hand.
I was scheduled to attend the dedication of a new hospital emergency department that afternoon, which I did.
As a patient.
The emergency doc put a split on my finger and suggested I see a hand surgeon. Several days later, a surgeon repaired what he called one of the worst tendon tears he’d ever seen.
We hadn’t decided on a name for our new trouble-causing pet, but my finger injury solved that.
We named our black cat Pinky.
