David Colburn
Twenty years after the actual fact, the incident that taught me the that means of the phrase “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” continues to be as vivid and horrifying as ever.
My ex-wife and I had lastly offered the home the place we’d lived as a household with our daughter, and the 2 of them had been transferring in along with her new boyfriend. Kiersten, my daughter, had a canine and two cats, however the boyfriend was solely keen to absorb the canine and one cat, not two. Emily, a good looking tortoiseshell Persian, had at all times been ‘my’ cat, one I adopted from a shelter shortly after we’d moved to St. Peters, Mo., a St. Louis suburb. I welcomed this chance to get again ‘my’ cat and drove to St. Peters from my home in Kansas one weekend to choose her up.
The adoption settlement I’d signed after I bought Emily mandated she be ceaselessly an ‘indoor’ cat, an settlement we’d caught by all these years. But I assumed it will be good for Emily to perform a little exploring exterior for as soon as, so earlier than choosing her up I ended on the pet retailer to purchase a harness and a leash. Once I collected Emily, I detoured from the straight route home to go by Cuivre River State Park, close to Troy, Mo.
Cuivre River is a good looking, rugged Missouri park lined with white oak bushes the place I’d spent many weekends tenting, and I knew simply the spot to offer Emily just a little style of wilderness. I parked the automobile, put the harness on her comfortable and tight, clipped on the leash, and off we went into the woods.
That makes it sound just a little sooner than it actually was – Emily was fairly interested in each little factor in her path. She sniffed, she pawed, and he or she even chewed among the vegetation. For about half-hour, I let her take the lead alongside just a little draw stuffed with puddles from storms the prior day. She appeared to be having fun with herself simply superb. But dealing with a six-hour drive forward, half-hour was lengthy sufficient for the tour. Since she had no thought tugging on the leash meant to cease or change instructions, I gathered her up in my arms and began the walk again to the automobile.
We made all of it of about 20 yards.
Maybe it was one of many vegetation she ate. Maybe it was an excessive amount of recent outside air. Maybe it was the ‘call of the wild.’ Whatever it was, one thing instantly turned my pretty little Emily into the demon cat from Hades! No warning in any way – fast as a hiccup, Emily the docile morphed into Emily the crazed! Her eyes had been vast and wild, she howled, she lashed out at me – and I had no alternative however to drop her. She instantly bolted away, jerked to a sudden halt by the leash. She began furiously rolling forwards and backwards within the leaves … after which to my horror, she was free! Somehow, she had slipped out of the harness, and he or she dashed madly again into the woods at high velocity, with me frantically giving chase.
Her sprint ended 15 ft above the bottom, clinging tightly to the trunk of a 40-foot-tall oak. These oaks didn’t department out till about 20-25 ft up, so the one factor supporting Emily was an ever-so-slight bulge on the level the place she stopped. Part of me wished to sprint again to the automobile to get a blanket to ‘net’ her with when she got here down – however I couldn’t danger the possibility she’d come down within the interim and get ceaselessly misplaced within the woods. So as an alternative, I leaned my again towards a close-by tree and tried coaxing this crazed kitty to return down. I’m certain you may think about how nicely that technique labored.
The forecast that afternoon was for scattered thunderstorms, and about half-hour after she scampered up the tree, one scattered our method. The winds got here howling in, turning Emily into an affordable facsimile of a circus acrobat perched atop a kind of lengthy, slender, swaying poles. Back and forth she went because the rain rapidly adopted, each of us getting drenched within the course of. It took about 20 minutes for the storm to maneuver by way of – Emily’s grip by no means weakened. She stayed put proper the place she was, soaked and swaying and howling.
Muscles, be they human or feline, get fatigued and cramped if left in the identical place of exertion too lengthy, and quarter-hour after the rain give up, Emily wanted to shift a bit – and he or she slipped, plummeting to the bottom. I instantly pounced on her, however she simply writhed away from my grasp and bolted for a close-by tree. Before she may get out of attain, I leaped as excessive as I may and latched on to her tail, ripping her down from the trunk. The solely ‘safe’ choice to preserve from getting ripped to shreds by my crazed little woman was to take care of my grasp on her tail and maintain her upside-down at arm’s size, writhing and flailing and snarling, as I headed again to the automobile. I opened the door, tossed Emily in, slammed it rapidly, and crumpled towards the automobile, exhausted and mentally drained.
When I lastly bought contained in the automobile ten minutes later, I reached towards Emily to offer her a comforting pat on the top – however bought a snarl and a swipe of her claws in return. She was clearly in no temper for any present of affection from her tormentor. For about 30 miles I drove in absolute concern that she may instantly resolve to assault me, a sense that was solely relieved when she crawled beneath the seat. Drained from the ordeal, I made a decision we’d spend the evening at a lodge in Columbia.
If I’d have been clever, I’d have simply let Emily spend the evening within the automobile – however no, the considered her being on their lonesome on the market at midnight simply didn’t sit nicely with me. After getting settled in my room, I went again out for Emily, who was none too wanting to be forcibly ripped from her protected area. Once within the room, she wasted little time discovering she may crawl up inside the recliner within the nook – and that’s the place she stayed till the subsequent morning, after I needed to drag her out as soon as extra to get again within the automobile. She rapidly dove again below the seat and remained there your complete four-hour drive home.
It took nicely over every week for Emily to recover from the trauma and again to being her ‘old self’ – which gave me every week’s price of guilt for having put her by way of all of that trauma. I by no means put her in a harness or on a leash once more.
And I’ve by no means ever forgotten the lesson that good intentions executed with ineptitude might be each bit as problematic as unhealthy intention executed with precision. That’s a lesson I’ve since found many of us would do nicely to study, or they, too, will want an asbestos jumpsuit once they attain their vacation spot.
