Lucky fell off the terrace tonight. That's the second time it's happened. I'd been watching "30 Rock" and was cooking. Then I went to check up on him, called him, he didn't come, then went out on the terrace and called out to him and he meowed back. He was lying in the fern bed, one story below, and looked unharmed. (I live on the fifth floor and overlook the pool deck, which is on the roof of the parking garage, on the fourth floor.)
I told Lucky to hang on and immediately took the elevator down to the lobby, to the security desk, to get the key to the pool deck, since the door's locked (they're making major repairs at this time). The key the security guard gave me didn't work, but I again called out to Lucky and took the elevator back down to the lobby. The security guard couldn't find the key to the pool deck door. I was panicking but remained calm. Then they (including the former maintenance man here, who just happened to be standing at the desk) told me I could access the pool deck if I took the elevator to the third floor and walked west through the parking garage to a stairwell, and then walk up one flight. (This is a secret, by the way.) Sure enough, I did that and got onto the pool deck. I walked over by my apartment and called out for Lucky but he didn't meow back. Finally I walked over to the bed where I'd spotted him, and there was, lying in the same spot. He didn't say anything but let me scoop him up and bring him back upstairs without much of a struggle. Whew!
I let him out of my arms when the elevator reached our floor and he went running to the front door and ran into the apartment when I opened the door. He's OK. He ate something. Meanwhile I closed the screen door to the terrace. He's not going back out there tonight.
Short of not allowing Lucky onto the terrace, there's nothing I can do to prevent him from walking along (and perching on) the edge of the terrace beyond the glass railing or walking along the top of the concrete wall on either side (where he also likes to sit). When I tried to obstruct the openings on either side of the railing, he would just jump down there from the walls. He also walks across the top of the railing, which has an oval-shaped cap (i.e., it's not even a flat surface). Mainly he likes to perch out on the edge of the terrace, outside the railing, and watch whatever is going on in the bushes below (the fascinating lives of lizards, I suspect).
One reason I got this apartment is that it was a short fall to the pool deck below, since at the time I moved here (and until her death on June 30 last year), I had my cat Lucy. Lucy also used to fall off the terrace at the apartment from which I moved here, weaving through the bars of the railing. That is, until I got some reed fencing and wired it to the railing. I can't do that here, and it wouldn't work, anyway.
So that's my excitement for the night. Glad everyone's OK.
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