Cat Skeletons

As part of my nanny duties, I am supposed to let the cats outside. One afternoon Lily, our black cat, got into a fight with the cul-de-sac cat, and ran up a tree. When you're 8 years old, your cat being stuck in a tree is a huge deal, but when that 8 year old is as dramatic as E, it's really the end of the world. We waited to see if Lily would come down on her own, but after 30 minutes E was getting desperate. E called her mom, who then told us to call the fire department.

I called the fire department nearest our house, and when I told the receptionist I was calling because our cat was stuck in a tree, she started laughing. By the point, I was laughing too, realizing how incredibly ridiculous and cliche it was that I was calling the fire department to get a cat out of the tree. She then connected me with a Lieutenant, who thought I was just a prank caller. He even asked, "Who is this?" in a super serious tone. After realizing this was, in fact, a serious inquiry his tone cooled down as he explained the liabilities of sending "his men" to pull cats out of trees. Then he told me something I will never forget. He told me to tell E to Google "cat skeletons in trees"--What?!--which sounded crazy, but he continued to explain that cats always come down from trees so there aren't any pictures of cat skeletons on Google, thus alleviating E's worries that Lily would be in that tree forever. I didn't tell E to do that, but did assure her that Lily would come down when she was hungry, and 10 minutes later, Lily did.

This is life,

Zuri