Sunday night I come home from work at midnight. Pinners, my 6-year old tuxedo, is nowhere to be found. She always greets me when I get home. So does Tasha, Mom's 4-5-year old? Shepsky (German Shepherd - Husky). After awhile, I decide to sleep and "not worry about it". 3AM I get up go outside, Tasha's right there. I ask her "Where is Pinners?". She has me follow her to an alder tree at the top of the bank (I live next to the south fork of the Big River). There, 25 feet up, is Pinners on a two inch diameter branch, the ONLY one on the tree less than 30 feet.

Okay, I jump into action. "Gotta save my kitty". I get a ladder from the other side of my cabin and brace it onto the tree. Stepping back, I can see it's not going to do any good. I walk up the driveway to Mom's house because I have a feeling she got up in the middle of the night while I come up with a plan.

"Tasha was barking fiercely at something tonight, probably the mountain lion the Johnson's saw" she says. "Maybe Tasha is just protecting her from the mountain lion." Well, that's good, I think, hopefully. "Anyway, you can't do anything tonight", yeah I knew that already.

So I go back down to my cabin, go to sleep after setting my alarm for 7:30 (when it's light and I've had some sleep). Turns out I set my alarm for 7:30PM not AM and got up at 9:00. After realizing that Pinners was in danger, I jump out of bed and put my shoes on.

Then I hear Pinners up in the rafters in my cabin, licking herself like cats do, waiting for me to feed her. She acted like nothing happened, like that's just in a days work for her. Like hanging out in a tree for 12-16 hours is just what you do, then you just come down 25 feet and go back in your cabin. For a cat that can spend most of the day in a crate doing nothing, I'm surprised how athletic she really is.

I have a lot to learn.