What's that sound?

(we're back from our vacation and the memorial services. I have yet to sort pictures. I'm not up for rehashing the memorial services except to say that my husband preached (not once, but twice), per his brother's request, and he did so beautifully and I could not be prouder of him. so, to move out of the gloom I will regale you with a story that happened just before we left...)

It was the Saturday before our vacation. That afternoon we would be heading to the Endymion Parade. But I was having a lazy morning. It was about 10 am. I was eating breakfast. I heard a sound.

It sounded as if something had fallen down our chimney and landed on the fireplace. I heard swish and then a thud on metal, as if something had hit the flue. I got up, walked into the living room, and stood still for a few moments. I heard nothing else. I went back to eating.

A little bit later, I noticed that our attic door was open. This usually means that the cat has pushed his way into the attic. I peeked around for him, and called his name. I heard nothing. I shut the attic back up.

When my husband got out of the shower, I told him about the attic, warning him that the cat may still be in there, but that I didn't think so. Then I told him about The Sound in the fireplace.

"Are these two things related?" He asked.

"Well, that did occur to me, but I don't think so." I replied. "I mean, how could the cat have gotten into the chimney?"

We went about our day. Shortly, a little boy from the neighborhood came over to play. He had not met our cat before, and The May Queen wanted to show him off. They began searching the house, calling "Shakespeare, Shakespeare." The cat did not come out, but this is not unusual. He often hides from The May Queen, and who can blame him, really?

But after about 5 minutes of this, we began to get concerned. We all started looking. At one point I was standing in the living room, and I heard this faint sound. A faint meowing sound. That seemed to be coming from the chimney.

I was baffled. How did the cat get in the chimney? I opened the flue and shone a flashlight up the pipe, but saw nothing. But the pipe took a turn, and perhaps the cat was stuck above the turn?

I went up in to the attic to see how the cat had gotten into the chimney. We thought perhaps he had found a way onto the roof? I knew where the chimney ran up between my bathroom wall and closet, because my dad mentioned it once when we was in the attic putting a plug in. So I headed back there with a trouble light. And I found trouble.

The cat had NOT gotten into the chimney, but had walked out across some pink insulation and fallen into the wall surrounding the chimney. He had enough room to move around and could jump from the "floor" to on top of the tin surround of the fireplace. That was the thud on metal that I had heard.

He looked plaintively up at me and meowed.

We ended up cutting a hole in the garage wall to get the cat out. He was covered in insulation, but this came off much more easily than soot.

Do you think the cat will be smart enough to stay out of the attic now? I doubt it.