My sister, Elisabeth, called the other day and said, “Does it seem to you that my life is just one crisis after another?”

Well, yes.  But then that’s life, isn’t it?  And a lot of times telling others about our crises helps to put a humorous spin on it that we fail to see at the time. 

Case in point: Elisabeth and the case of the mysterious meows. 

It seems there was a certain stray cat who was hanging around their house.  My sister refused to feed it because she knew they were moving overseas next month and didn’t want to deal with a new pet.

But she was pregnant.  The kids looked up at her with sad eyes.  Her husband convinced her it was the only humane thing to do.  So, they fed her.  They also began to leave the garage door open so she could have the kittens in the safety of their garage.

As luck would have it, Momma Cat liked the garage so much, she explored and found a secret hole to their attic.  As luck would have it, she had her babies up in this section of attic, unreachable from the attic stairs that humans use.  And as luck would have it, my sister’s husband was out of town during the blessed event.

Well, Elisabeth and the kids were in the kitchen one evening and heard the faint sound of meowing … inside one of the walls.  Then they heard it again, only in another wall.  The kittens were falling down into the walls.

What would you do?  Keep in mind this is a rent house they are in, and the landlord is not a compassionate man.  You can (1) start cutting up the walls to get the kitties out or (2) leave them and they will surely die.  And then the smell … ugh.

So, they started cutting.  At long last, they rescued the one kitten.  This was going to take a very long time at this rate.  Her mind wandered.  “Rescuing kittens, rescuing kittens, rescuing kittens,” she thought. 

Aha!  Elisabeth was having a revelation!  This is what firemen do in the movies, right?!

Her revelation led her to call the local fire department and tell the nice man her dilemma.  He chuckled and said, “I don’t know how to tell you this, lady, but we’re not in the kitten rescuing business anymore.”

Her heart sank.  She added, “Well, I just thought if you were having a slow night and wanted a real challenge …”  But he said, “No thanks.”

A few minutes later the phone rang and it was a fireman from a different fire department.  He said excitedly, “We’d like a stab at getting those kittens out of the walls for you!”

It must have been a really slow night, because not one, but SIX firemen showed up.  They cut walls, they moved furniture, they cut ceilings.  The house was a disaster.  In all they retrieved two more kittens from the walls and three more from the attic.  The babies were relocated to beneath my sister’s bed, where Momma Cat made herself right at home.

The firemen left and my sister was left cleaning up the aftermath.  She was delirious.  She had been up since 5:30 a.m. and it was well past midnight.  Then she imagined she heard another one.  It was her mind playing tricks on her, she thought. 

It was coming from the wall. And it was very real.

So, she hauled out the tools again and began cutting yet another hole in the wall, rescued Number 7, and took him back to join his noisy brothers and sisters.

Elisabeth had to sleep on the couch.  It was too loud in the nursery.

She knew she should never have fed that cat.  She didn’t want to deal with one pet.  Now she has eight.

So, if you know anyone who wants a kitten …