>In the early days, our intrepid intern Moo needed some time to adjust from the life of a free-spirited stray to the constraints (and luxuries) of indoor life. One such adjustment was to learn that walking on the wrong side of the mezzanine safety rail inside the LwithT Headquarters was an unfortunately quick way to reach ground floor. Twice, little Moo had dabbled in the “dark side” of feline safety and suffered the consequences…a 12 foot drop to the hardwood floor. She also single handedly proved that cats do not always land on their feet. It has since become obvious to even the most casual observer that Moo is what the scientific community would label “clumsy as hell”. She seemed to learn from her early mistakes, and has realized the benefits of using the stairs. She has even started to copy the stair-descending styles of Shadow and Ash which has resulted in a strange combination of Ash’s “graceful as a butterfly, quick as a cobra” style and Shadow’s “two feet in unison, ca-clump, ca-clump” style. Now that Moo is growing, I figured the days of walking on the wild side were over.
Until this morning.
Moo has yet to learn that now that she is growing bigger, that deliciously scary ledge on the wrong side of the safety rail is going to appear smaller, and right when it appears that a u-turn is in order, there is no place for the caboose to go except over the edge. Please note this artist’s rendering of the event in question:
I am, however, happy to report that this story has a different ending that the previous ones. As I lunged (as much lunging can be done in the early morning hours of a Sunday), little Moo pulled herself up using a “grasping at straws” technique that usually only works in cartoons. She managed to return herself safely to the correct side of the safety rail just in time to see me awake and to remind me that it’s breakfast time, complete with an escort to the food bowl. All of this makes me think that she CAN learn from her mistakes, and that it may soon be time to consider elevating her status from intern to junior-level assistant. We’ll see how she does on her 1 year review this December.