Colby on the Bookshelf

One day I came back from my walk and couldn't find Colby anywhere. When I finally saw him, I was baffled. He was on top of the seven-foot-tall bookshelf. With an eight-foot-tall ceiling. He's taller than a foot when he stands up. (Stands like a normal cat on all four feet).

I could not, for the life of me, figure out how he got up there.

He's quite proud of himself.

 Thimble couldn't figure out how he got up there either, and it was driving him crazy. Colby, the baby, is not supposed to be doing things that Thimble can't!

Puzzled Thimble

The entire bookshelf, for scale. 

 I had to go to work, unfortunately, and Colby was too happy and pleased with himself to want to come down. I had to trust that whatever way he'd used to get up there, he could get down. So I said to him, "I hope you can get down from there."

When I got home from work, Colby, who is usually in one of the cat trees to either side of the big picture window in the kitchen that I park in front of, was instead on the table, in the exact center of the window, as if to ensure that I saw him first thing when I got home. Which I thought was sweet of him, if rather funny.

I began to suspect how he was getting up there after thinking about it for a few days (days in which he repeated the feat several times without letting anybody who cared see him do it. Apricot didn't care but I know Colby avoided both me and Thimble while he got up there so that Thimble would remain puzzled and on the floor).

The other side of the bookshelf.

On the other side of the bookshelf, there is a window-ledge height double-wide bookshelf, upon which rests an end table. You see it there. It's not a sturdy end table. In order to use it to get up to the bookshelf, Colby would have had to figure out that he had to jump on it and then wait for it to stop wobbling before he went the rest of the way. 

Given the clearance on top of the bookshelf, physics dictates that he can't just do a running launch and kick off the table surface on the way up; he'd smash himself into the ceiling. He'd also knock over the end table, and it was never knocked over.

So I suspected he was doing this but I wasn't sure, given the thoughtful behavior necessary to make it work.

One night, I came home to find the wand toy that is usually stored with the stuffed animals in the top shelf on the floor, and Colby on the top of the bookshelf looking pleased with himself. He'd knocked it down. Okay, fine, we'll play with it. Also, so that's why he went to all the trouble of getting up there in the first place. He saw it from the floor (I had apparently not tucked it in enough) and wanted it.

While playing with it later that night, I lured him over to the side of the bookshelf where I thought he was getting up there. I did take video, but it's about ten minutes of Colby dithering about it. He knew Thimble was watching and didn't want to give away his secret.

However, the toy taunting him from the top of the bookshelf was just too much after a while. Sure enough, he jumped to the end table, waited for it to stop wiggling, and then leaped very carefully into the foot-tall space available to him, kind of landing almost on his elbows and knees and sliding into place.

Thimble watched, fascinated, as Colby got to play with the wand toy all by himself up there.

But it wasn't until the next morning that I saw them both up there.

The end of Colby playing King of the Hill

 I guess it took Thimble a while to figure out how to get his taller body into the space Colby had managed. Thimble was up there, and proud of himself, but he didn't really like it up there. He's literally too big to be comfortable. If he lies down, too much of him sprawls over the edge, and he can't stand or sit without being hunched over.

As you see in the picture, neither can Colby, but the difference is that Colby is (a) a little smaller than Thimble but not by much, but more importantly (b) he's used to crouching; he does it all the time.

So while Colby's been up there rather randomly ever since (the wand toy got moved to another section of the bookshelf, one he can't get to (I think)), Thimble hasn't been back up. He just wanted to prove he could.