"he flew through the air with the greatest of ease"

C S L .!!!!!!!!!!!

Poor Digby, you obviously have not taught him properly. My Tara would sail through the air with the greatest of ease. She rarely misses her target.

Our Maurice is a feline athlete par excellence, lean, lithe and a good hunter. Richard and I were talking after watching Digby, and decided that if there was some sort of production process for cats that involved some sort of quality control, with those that passed getting some sort of stamp of approval, Digby would definitely be the one with "reject" stamped on him, poor love.

The question that is still intriguing us re Digby's attempts is "why"? Not why did he fail, but what on earth made him want to get on the roof in the first place?

In the OP I meant porch and downstairs toilet roof.

I just the love the AKA, it could be our cat!

I wonder why it is, especially with male cats, the bigger they are, the more ridiculous the miaow is?

I remember when another neighbour brought her two 8 weeks old kittens (Sidney and Marvin) round to show me. There was a tiny little "mew" and she asked her daughter which one of the kittens had squeaked. The look of disbelief followed by laughter when I said it was Digby was priceless.

Brilliant. Poor Digby, did he have a sulk?

There's always one phoenix. When we had scaffolding erected at the front of our house in London – can't remember why now – my six cats all used to hop out the sitting room window and play on it when the workmen had gone home. Invariably, whenever Helvetica went out, his exit was shortly followed by sounds of increasingly frantic scrabbling, a series of musical clanging noises, a soft thumping sound and a little squee as Helvetica descended rapidly into the basement. Fortunately, he never hurt himself – just his dignity.

Phoenix poor cat.

I once saw our former ginger ex tom cat do a leap up and out from a wall onto a narrow bar at the side of a fire escape to get up to our third floor flat.
The Big Downstairs Cat was sitting at the bottom of these stairs.

I still don't know how Frank managed to land safely on that bar and get to the stairs. I think I got a few gray hairs over that.

Not so as you'd notice, Liz, he just went off all of a trot wobble (when he runs, or attempts any speed greater than an amble, his whole body wobbles like half set blancmange) into the back garden.

No doubt he had suddenly remembered that he was late for his appointment to stare at the sheep.

My ginger female (fortunately she is too old now!) used to climb out on to the roof if anyone left the bedroom window open. She would then sit up there until a small crowd formed and someone knocked on the door to tell us. Then there would be the hunt for a long enough ladder and someone would have to risk life and limb to get her.
It was some years before we discovered that she was quite capable of getting back through the window on her own!

Little baggage, Deedaa !

(The cat, that is, not you)

Very funny phoenix - you certainly have a way with words, I could picture the whole incident.

Just wish I could have captured it on film! Digby is a lovely chap, we got him about 18 months ago from Cats Protection when he was 2.

He's a very handsome tabby, with a lovely nature, but OMG is he thick !

That is really funny Phoenix, you describe it so well!
What is the news on Lily? Apologies if I have missed any update, although I have been watching the original thread for news.

Hello shysal I'm not sure if I updated on Lily, so here goes.

After the failed attempt to get her on her last trip to the vet on Christmas Eve, our vet said to see how she goes.

Well, she seems to spend most of her time halfway up the stairs, with her head through the banisters keeping an eye on all activity. She's eating ok, seems reasonably content (still completely mad) and some days she doesn't seem to have any fits at all. When I hear her going into one, I run to the scene and she usually recovers within a minute, so the actual fits are very short.

However............... in the evening when we go through to the sitting room, she can look through from her observation point. If I'm passing too slowly on my way to or from the kitchen, she launches herself between the bannisters and attaches herself to my shoulders, rather like a grubby and slightly moth eaten tippet. It can take some time to dislodge her

She will sometimes decide that she is going to join us, so appears in the sitting room and after a few moments attached to my neck, will eventually settle down on my lap purring quite happily. This is rather nice, until she has a fit. When she has one, her bladder empties. On me.

Lily doesn't really seem to be bothered by the fits does she? The bladder thing must be a nuisance though. My next door neighbour is a vet who repaired and brought home a cat. He has one eye, three legs, is deaf and has fits. He is another completely mad animal! She has decided to do nothing about the fits, and he has a good quality of life, entering all the nearby cat flaps, and can be seen giving his smug one-eyed stare to all passers-by from many a different window including mine.
I hope Lily continues to enjoy her life.

You're right, they don't seem to bother her much at all.

Your description of your neighbours cat had made me

When we first moved in to this cul de sac of 7 houses, there were 2 cats who each had only 3 legs. I was a bit worried that Maurice would think it was that seasons must have look.

Sadly phoenix I'm more of a large baggage now!
My daughter's elderly cat had a stroke during an operation and woke up blind and hardly able to walk. They turned their bedroom into a sort of padded cell for her so that she could stagger around safely and she lived happily for another year.

Oh bless her!

She was a funny little thing and my daughter was devoted to her. The cat she has now is about four times the size - think Maine Coon with attitude