A: Dogs Might Have Something To Do With It.
Squeak the Kitten turned up missing one evening. After it got dark and he still hadn't shown up, I searched the yard with a dim flashlight and couldn't see or hear anything. In the morning before the sun came up I let Harry the Dog out of the pasture (where he spends the night with Scout the Ox) and called "kitty, kitty." Harry trotted off around the two large-bales, behind the garden, through the brush, and across the backyard to a pine tree --- where he stopped and looked up.
There was Squeak, as seen in the above picture. He'd spent the night in the tree. It was his first time out of the house overnight, and it was cold. Though cats climb trees quite naturally, I've heard they have to be taught by their mothers how to climb back down. Niether Squeak nor Soapy were raised by mother cats. I plucked him from the branch, handed him to Sherry, and rushed off to work.
I don't know if it was Harry the Dog's awesome nose that had come to the rescue, or if he had something to do with getting Squeak up the tree in the first place? (The latter is not hard to imagine!)
The next evening I looked out our window and saw Squeak and Soapy climb up about three feet high on the elm tree, and then climb back down. I guess they had decided it was time to get some practice.
