Dobleve

   The other day while I was working, I heard what sounded like someone banging a tin cup.  Annoying, but I thought it would end soon enough, there are lots of weird noises that come and go in our neighborhood.  After 10 minutes of the noise, I decided it was worth a look.  Scattered around the street and several neighboring terraces were gathered the neighbors, one of them banging on a tin can with a fork, the rest occasionally cheering him on, all in the pouring rain.  I don’t have the skills yet to politely ask in Spanish what in the world they are doing and could they please stop, so I put on my confused foreigner look and hoped for the best.

  Of course now I’m part of the spectacle, with cheering suddenly directed at me for reasons unknown, but at least the guy banging on the tin can has stopped.  Finally I get the clue that they are in fact pointing at my roof, which I can’t see because I’m standing in the doorway trying to not get wet in the rain.  A neighborhood cat has managed to find its way to our terrace roof, 2 stories up.  They are all trying to convince the cat to come down to the street.  It seems like only the cat and I realize its pouring rain and its 2 stories straight down to the street.  While the banging tin can and cheering are interesting, they’re not interesting enough to get wet and take a 30 foot leap for.

  Problem solved easily enough I thought, I headed to the terrace to get the cat, and after some coaxing was able to pick it up.  As I head downstairs, the first bark from Emmo followed quickly by the cat claw dug into my chest tells me I could’ve planned this rescue a little better.  In the midst of scratching, barking and meowing I exited the house to return the cat to a now very happy neighbor.