Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16 Dr. Gomez stood directly under Mr. Nemesis to try to break the cat's fall in case he dropped before the rescue equipment arrived. However, Dr. Gomez was very nervous about the fact that he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt. If he had to catch a falling cat with his bare arms, he was sure to end up looking like he'd wrestled a rosebush. "Hurry!" he called to Michael and Jane as they exited the garage with the ladder and fishing net.

该页暂无翻译

Michael set up the ladder as Jane handed her dad the net. Dr. Gomez climbed to the top rung of the ladder as Michael, Merle, and Pearl held it steady at its base. The Tennessee squirrels remained on Michael's windowsill, nervously watching the action, while Jane stood in the yard and cried. "Poor Mr. Nemesis! Hang on!" she wailed. Dr. Gomez extended the net as high up as he could, but it was still a couple of feet under the cat. "Climb up higher!" Jane cried. "He's scared!" "Meow!!!" Mr. Nemesis howled in confirmation. "It's not a step! It's not a step!" Dr. Gomez yelled, reading the warning printed on the top of every A-frame ladder. "C'mon, Mr. Nemesis! Let go! I'll catch you!" "MEOW!!!" the cat howled even louder. "I'll help!" Larry the squirrel offered. He jumped onto the tree trunk and scurried up into the branches. "Mr. Nemesis, let go!" Dr. Gomez repeated. Larry took hold of the branch the desperate cat was clinging to and began shaking it wildly. "What are you doing?!!!" Mr. Nemesis demanded. To Dr. Gomez and the kids, it just sounded like a howl.

"Just being neighborly!" Larry yelled, stomping on the thin branch with all his weight. Suddenly, the twig snapped! Larry was able to grab on to a nearby branch as Mr. Nemesis fell safely into the waiting fishing net. "Hurray!" Jane shouted. Her precious kitty was now safe in the netting, though squirming wildly and making sounds seldom heard from a cat.

"I'll get all of you! You'll all be sorry!" Merle, Pearl, Bob, Mary, and Larry heard Mr. Nemesis scream as Jane removed him from the net and took him back inside. He tried to break free and come after the squirrels, but the little girl's loving embrace was too tight. Before he knew it, Mr. Nemesis was purring helplessly as Jane scratched him behind his ears. "Poor baby kitty— flying through the air like a big butterfly," Jane cooed as Mr. Nemesis glared at the squirrels over her shoulder. "You see, Pearl! You helped him out, and now he's going to get us! Where's the blessing in that?!" Merle asked. "Merle, showing mercy to others isn't about being sure they'll be merciful to us in return. We do it because God was first merciful to us," Pearl explained. "We don't deserve the mercy he gives. It's a gift that he gives that we should also give to others, whether they deserve it or not."

Merle, Bob, Mary, and Larry thought about Pearl's words. "Who knows?" Bob said. "Maybe one day Mr. Nemesis will come to realize the same thing." Dr. Gomez looked down at Bob, who to his ears was squeaking wildly. "Did that squirrel just say something?" he asked Merle.