Having resigned ourselves to the fact that Kahlua is not coming home again, my family has adopted a new kitten. Three-month old Friday arrived yesterday. She's all black with curly whiskers and a very loud purr.

She is also a master of concealment. She'd only been home for half an hour when she disappeared for the entire afternoon, leaving me frantically wondering if she'd been able to slip outside and how I was going to explain to my mother that I had lost her new kitten. She turned up at supper time, but when we left her alone for ten minutes to eat dinner she disappeared again!

We thought she'd reappear when she got hungry, but she still hadn't come out by the time everyone was going to bed. Then we thought if the house was quiet for the night she might come out when we were sleeping. Morning came, and still no Friday. I got home from my run this morning to find my mother in the living room with one hand to her ear: she thought she could hear the kitten in the chimney.

Sure enough, when I got a flashlight and looked inside, there, behind the damper, was a tiny little black kitten gazing at me with glowing eyes. She was very eager to be petted, but she was stuck and couldn't get back down again. I ended up inside the fireplace for an hour or so, trying to coax her out. Unfortunately, this didn't work, so next I tried hammering the damper screw, trying to make the hole bigger so Friday could jump down. Still no luck. (And I was extremely dirty. I have a whole new respect for Bert the Chimney Sweep from Mary Poppins.)

We didn't want to leave her there because she still has stitches in her belly, she hadn't eaten in over 24 hours and she had a cough from all the soot in the chimney. Thankfully, when my brother came home he was able to get her out. She was filthy and shaking, but she purred and I think she was happy to leave her ashy hiding place.

Currently she's curled up in the bookcase. She did a bit of grooming and now she's taking a little nap. After all, it's been an eventful day and a half.

And that is how I spent the only sunny day of my vacation wedged inside a chimney.