It’s a choice. I’m working my core.

Our Japp is a ball of energy – now and then. He likes to go outside. But only on a leash, only for 20 minutes. Most of the time he lays in the grass and looks a bugs and lizards, bunnies and squirrels. But every now and then, he has a moment of madness as he sharpens his claws on the base of the tree. His ears go back. His tail switches about. And then, he flies up a tree trunk. He usually stops about 6 feet up, at the first branching. Usually. Most of the time. Sometimes, however,  a squirrel high in the canopy will mock him. At that point, he shoots up 20’ or more, way beyond my ability to catch the flying red 6’ lead. 

I always worry he’ll do himself an injury, if the lead catches on something when he leaps, or falls, from the tree. But, there it is. I imagine his view from the top is thrilling. Looking down on the earth from high above, he feels like a king. Or perhaps his thoughts become more philosophical. I really don’t know. He doesn’t share them with the likes of me. What I do know is that lost in all the heady sense of superiority, power, or what not, which comes from looking down on the mere earthbound, he always finds himself stuck quite high up and can never quite remember how to get down. 

Cats are famous for this, as are firemen and rock climbers for rescuing cats of such fame (possibly infamy). Nevertheless, this is what it’s like to be a cat. And what it’s like to be a cat owner. More than once, I’ve had to get the 8’ ladder out and climb up it as high as I could, to guide Japp back to the right branches, the ones that lead a mortal kitty back to earth. I sometimes pause in my coaxing duties to look at the view, but I don’t forget why I’m up there. 

Hahahah, you poor people waaaay down there.

Being a reasonable sort, I always like to let Japp jump(ish) down the last bit of the tree, from the first Y, so he feels confident in himself. He always pauses once on the ground and looks slightly vexed and up at the tree, as if it intentionally lured him up, then he trots away with his tail in the air. In a “done with you.” sort of way. I suspect (at least partially) he doesn’t want to see me or the ladder and admit I helped him in any way.

I was thinking of this last night, when we had some of the SO’s friends over to dinner. The SO knows them through their IT company. They run IT for smaller firms, 50 people or less, that don’t have onsite IT departments or people. During the course of the meal, “Jen-i” and “Paul” told us about recent encounter with a potential new client. They were excited at first, because it was a much bigger company than they usually deal with and they saw this as maybe a breakthrough moment for their firm, which is only about 5 years old. And then they had their first meeting with a few of the C-suite folks. It went as follows. 

Jen’i and Paul laid out their company’s capabilities and services, what they had done for other companies, etc, etc. Heads nodded. Jen’i asked if there were any specific issues the company was having. These were discussed. All pretty normal, per Paul. Jen’i asked if there were any specific pain points, or projects the current internal IT team were unable to handle or handle in a timely manner. The CEO (a person over 60 and not at all tech savvy), then began to tell them about a very specific issue. (Oh, boy.)

I’m just getting a bit of sun. I’ll be down in a minute. Stop bothering me.

Internal IT, in the course of its mandate to find and fix vulnerabilities, did a normal IT thing. They ran a strictly private web search on one of the HR people, to demonstrate the sort of public information that was out there on the web and represented vulnerabilities. IT then took the report to the HR person (subject of the search, under age 40) and showed it to that person. The HR person thought that was interesting and wanted to show it to the C-suite, but they wanted IT to do a search for each C-suite member, so each person could see the vulnerability. 

That there is this vast amount out there is something everyone under 40 understands. Information like this can be removed by removal services and most people with a passing familiarity of the internet understand this as well.  But when you deal with people who are older or without much understanding of the internet …. Well, there you are. HR presented the reports and people in C-suite completely melted down. They blamed the IT for exposing them. Um….no, IT actually was showing them they were exposed and giving them the opportunity to fix that. 

So for Jen’i and Paul, as a result of the company’s internal IT people doing their job correctly, the company higher ups was looking for new IT help. The company wanted to destroy it’s own functioning IT department – as if that would cure their vulnerability issues. Um….yeah. Sure. So, Paul and Jen’i found themselves dealing with a cat up a tree scenario.  Because they are wonderful people, they told the company that of course they could help, but went on to explain that the check the internal IT dept did was routine and one they would have recommended as well. They tried to talk the cat(s) down. 

I’m trying to see if you really, really care.

They aren’t sure how it will all work out. But, at this point, they also aren’t sure they want to work with a company where the leadership is soooo uninformed about tech and so reactionary about normal IT things. A normal IT precaution, run internally by a responsible IT person, should not provoke the destruction of the entire internal IT team. Paul said he would do some discrete enquiries into how many IT teams/people the company has used over the years. Just so he could understand what was going on. If you can see you’re dealing with a cat that will often run up a tree, maybe that’s not the cat for you.

This started a long conversation about different times we each had overreacted to someone who was just trying to help us, but we totally didn’t get it. And also about times when people had overreacted to us trying to help them. Sometimes you need to go up in a cherry picker with heavy gear on and grab an angry cat. Sometimes you can talk it down. Sometimes you’re the angry cat. Sometimes, you just need a bit of helpful coaxing. I thought about all this again much later, reading the newspaper. The US has lots of cats stuck in lots of trees right now. War in Iran? Presidential cat in a tree. Classic angry cat, always running up a tree, always demanding to be rescued.  

Republicans talking about “red scares”? Party cat in a tree. Given the GOP are the Red party and are trying to eliminate democracy and create a one party country, you’d think they’d avoid howling from the treetop about that. So, if there is a red menace in the US, it would be the GOP.   Then we have Ancient Regime Democrats declaring Dems are “Capitalists not Socialists.” Party cat in a tree. To sum up that statement in a question, do you want government to work for “captial” which isn’t human and only some citizens have, or for all of society, which is humans and which all voters are? You can be pro-social which leads to prosperity for all or pro-capital which leads to prosperity for a few. You can’t be pro both. It’s like Christian Nationalist. Nope. Doesn’t exist.

Thanks, but I don’t need a ladder.

So, lots of cats, in lots of trees right now. Probably the worst case scenarios are where people intentionally put their cats in trees and then declare emergencies and demand other people rescue their cat at great cost to those others, but not themselves. Honestly, those people shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near cats in the first place. That’s an animal cruelty situation. But those are pretty rare. Most of us are just average folk doing our best each day in difficult circumstances. Sometimes we are the cat rescuer, sometimes we’re the cat, sometimes we’re just the tree witnessing all the silliness and trying to make sense of it.

I’d encourage you this week to look around and see if you can spot the cat in the tree in your own life. Is there some area in which you need to talk yourself down? Maybe you need a friend with a ladder (or a cup of tea) to get your feet on the ground again? Maybe you need to do the talking or bring the ladder? Any tree you get up, you can get down again. The cat is not the problem. It’s just a cat. Maybe there are people trying to help you and instead of accepting that help, your howling your head off and running higher up the tree? If you’re way way way up in the tree, take a mintue to look around, and calm down. At least you’re not lost. You know exactly where you are. Right in your own backyard. Nothing’s really change but the perspective. It’ll all be okay.

Well, Japp is here beside me now, demanding to go out. I’m going to be a good cat steward and give him indoor playtime instead. I’m sure there will be some furniture climbing, and possibly some runner rugs slipping around, but at least I won’t need heavy gloves and a 20’ aluminum ladder.

Inner city optional tree-like object. That’s right, no TV till you pet me.