Kitten in a Tree part two...
Eric climbed the twenty metre high beech tree
like he was trotting up invisible rungs of a ladder.
The higher he went, the farther the tiny ball of fur
retreated up the tree.
It sat at the end of a thin branch by the time he reached the top.
‘Here kitty. Don’t be scared. I’ll take you down to Trina and Teresa.’
Slowly, the fireman stretched his arm out toward the kitten.
Half dangling, half holding on. If only he could grab the little thing.
His finger tips touched its furry chest.
Panicked, the kitten dug sharp claws into his fingers and jumped.
Eric leaped, caught the kitten, let go
and landed with force on a branch too thin to hold his weight.
The branch broke. He plummeted to the ground.
The paramedics were swift. Got him to hospital real quick.
To everyone's surprise, he went home with only a broken arm.
A sad story if it ended there.
While Eric received treatment for a broken arm,
the medics discovered he had a
previously undetected heart condition.
A ticking time bomb they stopped
before it could go off in the middle of
fighting a fire.
What about the kitten?
It spends most hours of the day
keeping Eric company.