Old Toby Boy had a bit of a brush with disaster this afternoon...
Now he doesn't really do trees, but Pearl loves them, and lately, Toby's been copying her by hoisting himself up into the odd one and going for a bit of a climb. This afternoon, he was tootling about in a medium-sized ash tree and well, he couldn't quite muster the courage to jump down, so instead, he climbed up.
After a while, he realised that he'd overextended his mediocre climbing abilities and tried to turn around on a really thin branch about ten feet up or so. As he did so, he lost his footing and found himself dangling from the branch, holding on for dear life with his front paws. Toby tried to scramble back onto the branch, but as he did so, it snapped and he fell.
But he fell straight into my arms! Thank goodness I somehow could see that one coming and I stood under him, so I caught him as he fell. If I hadn't, I'm not sure he'd have had the time and distance to right himself and likely he'd have hit the ground with a bit of a bump.
I know it sounds funny now, but it could have been potentially a nasty incident... Bless him, he's none the worse for his near miss, but it gave me palpitations for sure.