I just went through every cat owner's worst nightmare.

The morning, I went outside to get Doc, our cat. Doc is 11 years old, a very smart and very beautiful long-haired black cat. Every night, either my self or my sister Erin let him go out in the back yard and every morning, he comes running in and one of us gives him a treat and then he proceeds to curl up on the couch and sleep for most of the day. It's a bit of a tradition around these parts and, as long as Doc's around, I always know that everything's going to be okay.

This morning, when I opened the door and yelled, "Doc!," he didn't come running inside.

I stepped out into the back yard.

"Doc?"

Still no answer. I walked around the entire back yard and I couldn't see him. I even went over to the two little buildings that we have in the back yard and I lay down o the ground and looked under the them, just to see if he was hiding. And again, there was no sign of him. As I stood up, I heard the neighbor's dogs howling and barking.

"SHUT UP!" I yelled at the dogs.

(Again, this is a part of my morning routine. Those dogs always bark and I always tell them to shut up.)

As I yelled at the dogs, I glanced over at the tree that sits right next to the fence that divides the two yards. And what did I see at the top of the tree but a very scared Doc. Doc enjoys chasing squirrels so I'm guessing he probably jumped up on the tree while chasing one. And then, when the dog started barking, Doc got scared and, as cats tend to do, he climbed up as high as he could. And now, he was stuck at the very top of tree, with no idea how to get down.

At this point, Erin came outside into the backyard. She had heard me calling Doc's name so she knew something was going on. So, imagine the scene. Here I am, basically in my underwear and a robe, standing outside and trying to convince Doc to come down out of a tree while, on the other side of the fence, the dogs are just going crazy.

Since Erin was actually dressed, it fell on her to go around front and try to get our neighbor to wake up from his alcoholic stupor and take his dogs in for a few minutes. She stood outside of his door and banged on it and even rang his rusted old doorbell. He never came to the door and his dogs would not shut up.

Finally, Erin came back to the backyard and told me that the neighbor wouldn't come to door.

"Maybe we should go open up his gate," I said.

"What?" Erin replied.

"If we let his dogs out, at least they won't be barking at Doc."

Fortunately, while we were debating whether or not it would be legal to set free our neighbor's dogs, Doc climbed down/fell out of the tree. He landed with a big plop behind us and then he ran over to the den door. We ran after him and let him back inside the house.

So, the good news is, Doc got out of the tree and he's survived his frightening morning with only a bruised ego. The bad news is that the dogs are still barking.