CATastrophic

Dave awoke to the sounds of a dog barking incessantly. Dave propped himself up on his elbows, fumbling for his shades with a super confused expression on his face. He was slow in the mornings. Definitely not a morning person. He shoved the shades onto his face and swung his legs over the side of the bed. His feet his the chilly wood floors and instantly retracted them. He grumbled to himself as he slowly lowered his feet again and stood up.

The barking wasn't stopping, and it was starting to piss him off. "Fucking dogs, can't learn to shut the fuck up. It's 9 in the fucking morning, I want to go back to bed." He stomped his way to his closet and shoved on his shoes before stomping his way to his front door. He flung the door open, ready to yell at the annoying animals that woke him way too early. "HEY! SHUT THE FU-" he cut himself short when he realised the dog was barking up a tree, trying to get to a cat. His cat. "Oh, hell fucking no."

Dave marched right over to the tree and chased the dog off. The dog thought he was playing at first and kept dashing away then dashing back. "Shoo!" Dave shouted, exasperated. "Shoo!" The dog eventually got the messaged and ran off. Dave didn't care if what happened to it after it left. (That was a lie, he did care and wanted to go after it, but needed to focus on his kitty first.) "Pixie," he called up the tree. He made a clucking noise to try and get her to climb down.

It didn't work. Not that Dave thought it would, but it was worth a shot.

"God dammit, Pixie. Get down from the fucking tree! I'm gonna have to call the damn fire department if you don't!" Yelling at her didn't work either.

Dave went around back to his shed to find his ladder. He opened the door and coughed as the dust within floated out. He covered his nose and mouth with the crease of his elbow and stepped inside. He squinted and stood still until he got used to the darkness within. One his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, he spotted the ladder right away: all the way in the back. Between him and the ladder, there was a jungle of tools and useless crap he has yet to throw away. He groaned out loud and started moving things out of his way. A lawn mower, some broken lawn chairs, some spark plugs. Here and there, a tool that wasn't in his tool bag. Flower pots with seeds littering the inside were everywhere.

Dave loved flowers and usually had them out, but this year he was just too busy to plant them and tend to them daily. His small cafe/bookstore was finally taking off and he was busier than ever, making sure he had everything, hiring new people to help out, taking inventory. Who knew having your own business would be this much work?

Once he made it to the back, and shoved some miscellaneous things out of the way and grabbed ahold of the ladder. He pulled it forward and tried to drag it out, but the screeching noise that the scraping made was just unbearable to his sensitive ears. He huffed and lifted it up with a bit of struggle and carried it out instead. Dave sat it next to the tree and started climbing it. It helped him reach one of the first branches, but that was as far as it got him. Dave hoisted himself on to the thick branch and sighed. Well, I guess Ill just carry you down. Dave should have known this was a bad idea the minute it popped into his mind.

He pulled himself up onto branches and maneuvered his body so he was so close to touching his poor cat, then.... He slipped. The branch started cracking with his weight (it wasn't that thick, he should have chosen a better branch. He should had done a few things, but he's a dumbass) and he latched on to the branch he was reaching for just in time. He glanced down as the branch fell away and squeaked. Holy shit, I'm up high. He swung a little so his feet hit the trunk of the tree and used that to help him up on the branch. "Well, it's just me and you, er.. You and me, Pixie." The calico cat growled at him because she was scared before trying to crawl further away. She quickly realised how unsafe that would be and stopped in her tracks. "I don't think I'm gonna be getting down either," Dave sighed. "I guess I have to call the fire department."