Tanzania Part 2 - an amazing day

(Remember that you can get a larger view of the pictures by clicking on them)
We did not fully realize it until a few days later but our second day on safari was an amazing one! We awoke fairly early and had coffee delivered to our tent to help us get started. We then had a very good breakfast at Swala Camp and then headed off with Ernest driving. He took us along a road where we carefully watched the trees to see if we might spot the tail of a Leopard hanging down, but no tails to be seen! However, a very large animal ran across the road in front of our vehicle and Ernest said it was a "Kudu"- we managed to get a couple pictures before it disappeared. Ernest said he "is with lucky people" because these are rarely seen. The males have long spiral horns or antlers- the picture shows this pretty well. Late in the day we saw two females- also unusual.
We drove around for awhile and saw lots of more common animals, then we came to a spot where two cars were stopped by the road and people were looking into some bushes. The driver of one told Ernest (in Swahili) that they had seen a young Leopard and were looking to see if it would reappear. So we waited watched and waited some more. At one point, Janet saw some momevement and we took pictures of something but could not quite tell what. Several cars came and went, but we waited. Ernest asked if we wanted lunch, so we drove down the road and he got our lunches from the back of the car and brought them forward. We then drove back to where the leopard was and waited and ate a very good lunch and waited some more. The we found him (or her)! In the picture you can get a pretty good idea why he was hard to spot!
Ernest thought he was about 8 months old and his mother probably left him here to hide while she hunted or rested elsewhere. So we saw a leopard- and a young one at that!
We then drove to another area and stopped to see a large herd of Zebra. While we watched a family group of elephants came marching right through the herd- pretty much telling everyone to get out of the way! The elephants stopped suddenly and looked around. The large matriarch looked at the cars in the road and suddenly decided to change the route of the family to the river and the turned 90 degrees and crossed the road.
We proceeded further along the road when we came upon another group of vehicles stopped by the road. Ernest pointed out the Lions! We watched and took pictures. There were 2 males, 3 females and 2 cubs spread out and mostly sleeping. One of the males got up and went over to rub against what was probably his brother, then he went over the remains of a buffalo that the pride had obviously been feasting upon. Ernest added commentary to what we were seeing " Oh brother, won't you get up and come help me drag this heavy buffalo under that bush?" with the reply being "Oh no brother! I'm much to tired and full, why don't you go drag it under the bush?" He then dragged the carcass under some bushes- an amazing sight! Evidently, he was trying to hide it some from hyena and all the vultures that were now watching from the trees! He went back to sleep. Apparently lion gorge themselves when they catch prey and then sleep alot and the gorge some more. Then they won't hunt for 2-3 days.
It was late afternoon so we headed back toward Swala Camp- probably an hour away. We were quite satisfied that we had seen almost enough to make the whole trip worthwhile! As we drove along we came upon some vehicles by the road again and this time we saw the scene in the picture- 3 young cheetah cubs playing! We loved seeing such cute little cats! Then we realized that the mother must be around and Ernest managed to get us a spot close to her when another car left. She was eating an antelope less than 30 feet from the road! She feasted away and the cubs would come over and eat too, then play some more. Mom growled at the cubs sometimes and she would go check on them too. It was an amazing thing to see from so close!
As we pulled in close to camp the sun was nearly set and we came around a bend in the road to find two large bull elephants right in front of us by the road. They were clearly a little startled- as were we- and we thought one might charge. Finally they settled down when we came no closer to them. Ernest said they were older males- one might be 50 years old. He said the like to 60 or maybe 65 years.
We pulled into to Swala Camp a little awestruck. We did not talk to othe guests much. We heard from Ernest, who spoke to the other drivers, that a larger group did not see too much this day. They had an expensive guide too. We felt very pleased with what we saw, but did not tell the others. At later places we found people tended to compare notes more on what they had seen. We did learn that it is very unusual to see a leopard. We did not meet anyone else on the trip who saw one while on their trip. It is relatively rare to see cheetah too. We heard that some people at another park saw 3, but they were far away and sleeping under a tree. The sightng of lion is more common than we thought- we probably saw more than 30 different lions on the whole trip- sometimes we saw the same group more than once. The Puff adder was also apparently unusual and the lilac breasted roller too. The Kudu was also an very rare sighting. That one was particularly good because our tent at Swala Camp was named "Kudu"! Very lucky people!

Tanzania Part 1

We left the Seychelles on July 16 on Kenya Air, which seems to be a good airline. We arrived in Nairobi, Kenya about 2.5 hours later and waited for our plane to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (we found that people often call it "Kili"). The flight was only about 1 hour, which is good because we were not convinced that the interior of the plane would hold together much longer than that. (It was not not a Kenya Air plane). It seemed very strange to be in Nairobi and hearing flights to Khartoum, for example, being announced. Places like that seemed mythical, and yet we saw real people boarding planes to go there! Of course, maybe they feel the same way about Memphis or Portland. In any case, we arrived safely in Kili. We saw Mt. Kilimanjaro from the plane and from the ground. It does still have some snow on top!
At the Airport we had to pay $100 each for our tourist visas (cash- though there was a young couple on the flight who were apparently allowed to pay with Tanzanian Shillings at about 1300 to the dollar when they said they did not have that much cash in $). We did not have much cash, but saved enough to pay the critical expenses. We were met at the airport by a couple guys from our tour company, who took us in a big Toyota Land Cruiser to the town of Arusha, which is the usual jumping off point to several parks in northern Tanzania. We stayed at the Arusha Coffee Lodge just for a short night as we go there about 8PM and left about 7:15AM the next morning.
A little more about how we arranged this trip. In 2007-2008 we made a great trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Hong Kong. Our local travel agent in the US had done very well for us on some trips in the past, but she felt that Asia was outside her realm, so she connected with another agent in the US who specializes a little more with Asia. That agent also knows more about Africa, so we contacted her a few months back to arrange this trip. She, in turn, dealt with an company in Africa which also works with some big name companies who do these trips for more money. It was expensive enough as it was. However, everything was well organized and top notch! The guys delivered us to our hotel and then picked us up in the morning to go to the local airport. They helped us check in and gave us a package of materials to give to our guide on the other end of the flight. It all went smoothly. As we went along we found that everyone was expecting us and, periodically, they checked on where we were to make sure we were not too late. It bothered us that we did not have plane tickets for what turned out to be 12 flights within Tanzania and Kenya, but they had our names on a list at each plane, so we flew without problems. We heard a few people having problems, but the people on the ground seem to figure something out.
Tarangire National Park was our destination on the 17th. This park is most well known for the large number of elephants . We did see a lot of elephants! They came in small groups and large groups, young, old, babies, huge and small!
Early July 17 we left Arusha for Kuro airstrip in Tarangire National Park. We were the only 2 people on a 13 passenger plane. Us and our pilot- Shawn. No co-pilot or crew. Just us. Janet was nervous about the small planes but found it was actually fine. This plane was only about 8 months old- only slightly younger than some of the pilots we had. About 20 years ago Jim took 3 flying lessons before having to stop due to lack of time. After just those 3 lessons he found he was able to take off and land a small plane- maybe not really well, but well enough to survive. So, we thought we'd manage. On one full flight there was a passenger in the co-pilot's seat. It turned out that he was a private pilot who volunteered to sit there in case the pilot needed him.
On arrival at Kuro we were met by "Ernest" - a lively and likable guy who was our guide for the next 2 days and then again later for a couple more days- he was great. He loaded our bags into the big land cruiser with extra sturdy suspension and 2 spare tires. It was about 9AM and after watching our plane leave with about 6 people leaving the park we were amazed to see Zebra all around! Were headed off on our first "game drive". It is customary to do these in the morning- as early as possible and then again in late afternoon. Many animals just rest during the heat of the day.
Tarangire is "woodland savannah" -that may not be spelled right- but it means a lot of open areas, but also a lot of trees. We saw lots of "Baobab" trees- like in one picture- they are strange looking things to our eyes. We learned that they do not have annual growth rings, so it is difficult to judge their ages, but some live more than 2000 years. They are scattered all over the park and look almost like they might move themselves around! We also learned that Acacia trees form the bulk of the tree species and these are food for all sorts of animals - including Giraffe and Elephants.
As we drove we saw one amazing sight after another in that it was the first time we were seeing truly wild animals roaming freely about. As we drove along one road Jim saw the back end of a leopard running away from the trail very fast. Ernest immediately said that he is "with lucky people- we will see a lot!". He turned out to be right. The leopard disappeared before we could take a picture, which is too bad. We saw a large family of elephant and started to follow roads to catch up to them, but we did not. However, we did see a group of Giraffe- one of which was only about 2 weeks old and still had part of its umbilical cord attached.
As we explored it seemed more and more amazing as we went. We spotted a very pretty bird with a bright torquiose underside. Ernest said it was something like a "lilac breasted roller". We saw it eating something which Ernest said was a scorpion. It eventually swallowed the whole thing. We took pictures but did not think too much about it at the time. That evening a guide for another group said he'd like to have a picture of this bird eating a scorpion. Now that we are back and have had some time to "blow-up" some of our pictures- here it is attached!
We went to Swala Camp in Tarangire. This is a fairly isolated place that has just been renovated. They did a great job! We had lunch at the camp and then went back out in search of leopard around 4PM. We did not see Leopard, but we saw a Puff Adder in the road. We also drove on some roads where the elephants had knocked down some trees to make it hard to pass through. We saw lots of interesting birds.
We saw many DikDik. These are tiny antelope or deer- the picture shows 2 males looking like they are about to butt heads in a test of strength- which is exactly what they were threatening to do! However, they both apparently thought better of it and decided to back off. They are very cute animals- probably not more than 18 inches tall.
Swala Camp is near a swamp and also near a water hole that was being carefully guarded by elephants. The elephants would roam away to eat, but always leaving several family members behind to chase away others who might take the water. There were Waterbuck who could not get to the water, so they came to the camp's pool and drank! The pool is new and while they have dug a ditch around it and made a wall, we watched, along with camp staff, as some of the waterbuck figured out how to get to the pool water. We were all fascinated.
We returned to camp about sunset, had a very good dinner and then slept well after our first day of "safari".

Seychelles

We flew from Bangalore to Dubai to the Seychelles leaving Early July 11 and were met at the airport by resort staff from Maia Resort who took us for the 25 minute drive to the resort where we began a wonderful relaxation. We were in danger of needing to cancel or alter the trip in a major way just a couple days earlier. First we got word that Kenya airlines canceled our flight from Seychelles to Nairobi on the 14th and did not have another flight until either 2 days before or 2 days later- both options being a big cut or addition to our trip. With the help of our travel agent- who is very good- we were able to shift all of the dates in Africa by 2 days, but it would have been a big cost adder in Seychelles. Next Janet was feeling quite sick with an intestinal bug, so we delayed departure by a day without too much trouble. So, we ended up with 1 extra day in the Seychelles instead of 2. Kenya Air gets some credit from us because they agreed to cover the cost of the extra night at the resort that was caused by their cancellation of the one flight.
The 5 nights in Seychelles were very relaxing. No responsibilities and we got copies of the New York Times to read each day! The accommodations were wonderful and the staff was great too.
We stayed at the resort every day but one. We went to the main town- Victoria so Janet could visit a clinic because she did not feel great and to see some of the town.
The doctor gave here some medication that helped her feel better over the coming days. In Victoria we went to the Botanical Garden and saw the giant tortoises there (about 25 of them). The trees and flowers were very nice too. It was rather hot and humid.
We walked to the center of town though Janet's knee was hurting too. In and old house we found a few nice crafts. In the rest of the town center we did not find much of interest so we ate a simple lunch and then met our driver to go back to the resort. We made 2 stops on the return to the resort. The first was at a craft village that was ok, but still disappointing. The second was at a sculptor's home- studio. His name is Tom Bowers and his wife. They are from the UK, but have been in Seychelles for 23 years. Many of their pieces are very nice. They make them in resin and then bronze casts are made in either London or South Africa for shipment any where in the world. While there we saw hoards of small brightly colored birds suddenly landing in the trees, then Tom threw a bowl of rice on the grounds and hundreds of birds flocked to get the food. It is a daily ritual in great colors!
We relaxed around our villia, on the beach and walked a little on the beach too. Mostly we relaxed and looked forward to the coming 11 days in Africa. Our first time there. We left on July 16 and flew to Nairobi and then Kilimanjaro.

"This is the Lost Battle"

We returned from a trip of 2 weeks to the Seychelles, Tanzania and Kenya. We locked the computer away so Ziggy and Zoe were not able to write any thing while we were away. We took the keys and they have not yet learned how to pick locks. They want to add something later here. We will be adding some pages and pictures from our trip as time permits. As a sort of teaser, we can say that the Seychelles were wonderful and Africa is amazing!
We left early in the morning of July 11. We were supposed to leave a day earlier, but Janet was sick and we were starting to worry that we'd have to cancel and hope that our trip insurance actually paid off (such places are infamous for not paying). However, Janet started to feel better on the 10th, so we went. We pretty much stayed up until we left about 1:15AM for the airport. A lot of international flights come and go here between midnight and 6AM. Joseph, our driver agreed to come and take us- he said he was afraid he'd oversleep, so he came about 10PM and simply stayed. We paid him extra for the overtime, though he did not ask for it. He took most of the following 2 weeks off, though one of our neighbors needed a driver one day and she paid him to work for her. It was part of his 1 month of vacation he is entitled to from us. He, his wife and son went to Kerala and Mangalore where they have family and friends to visit. His son, who is only a little over 1 year old has gotten quick sick in Mangalore- he got sick there in March also- some sort of intestinal bug that has him on antibiotics and intravenous fluids! They are bringing him back to Bangalore because they think the doctor here is better. Janet read that diarhea is the leading cause of death in children worldwide- due to fluid and electrolyte loss.
Our Housekeeper and a neighbor- Linn- checked on the cats while we were away. When we arrived Joseph said that Zoe was sick one day so he took her to the vet who gave her an injection and some medication for some sort of injury. We can't figure out what happened, but she seems OK- a little thinner, but OK. Maybe she will tell us when she writes later. Ziggy seems fine. He seems to have the fewest difficulties with living in India. It may be that he injured Zoe- they do play a little rough at times!
We have be getting big bottles of water delivered periodically- Renu, the housekeeper- normally orders replacements, but we we have to leave money for her to do so. When we returned on Tuesday, July 28 she had left a note on the water bottle saying "this is the last battle". We wondered if she was expressing something subtle- for example- there is bath mat in one bathroom that we move close to the shower each morning and EVERY day she moves it away from the shower and turns it 90 degrees. This seems to be a small battle we are fighting. Housekeeper's all seem to have their opinions about how things should be. In the case of the water bottle it is probably because her english is not so good, rather than an expression of a darker side. It is the last full bottle of water, so that is probably her meaning.
Zoe and Ziggy want to take over now.
We were very unhappy that our humans went away without us. The members of our extended pride are ok substitutes, but not the same! We are not going to expalin what happened to Zoe. They can just stew about that and wonder! However, we are glad they are back anyway. We knew something was happening when they put a lot of their outer skins into those boxes with handles that they take away when they abandon us for periods of time. they have been away from us for longer periods in the past, but this was the longest time since we arrived in this strange place where the little human - like creatures come up to the outside windows. Oh! We are learning how to open the doors and locks, so next time we might be able to write when they are away, but they are sneaky- this black box has something they call "passwords" and they keep changing them! That may be a real problem!

Around the Horns of India - part 2

We have been having a wonderful time watching the flying things out of all our windows! However, these humans won't let us catch any of them! This really isn't fair. We let them go around swinging tennis rackets that go "pop" and "bang" at bugs that fly around! We hate that noise, but we let them have their fun, so why don't they let us catch some of those flying things? Or how about some of the smaller things that run around in the trees and on the walls out there? Or even the smaller little things that climb all around the walls by the kitchen? How come huh? They can try to explain, but we doubt it will be much of an excuse.
We (the humans here) don't think Ziggy and Zoe will accept our reasoning, as they have their own program to follow. However, we might clarify. They do seem to love to watch all the birds outside. Unfortunately, there are a lot of pigeons around too and some have taken up nesting in some nooks and crannies of the building, so the Z's get to see them a lot and wish they could chase them. Pigeons are somewhat cute, but very messy too. We see whole buildings that are quite a mess from all the droppings- it can't be very healthy for the people and pets either. We should add a picture sometime of an example or two. There are also some chipmunks and squirrels out on the trees and they like watching them a lot too. Janet had one balconey made into a place where the cats can go outside safely. It is away from where the monkeys come and it also houses the washing machine and cooking gas cylinder. They like to sit out there for hours at a time. At night Zoe loves to sit out there and watch the lizards run around on the walls. The little lizards, presumably, eat bugs, so they are probably good. As far as we know they seem to be wise enough to stay up high and away from Zoe.
A couple more observations on car and motor bike horns. Many motor bike shave rather meek sounding horns- proportional to their size. However, there seem to be a lot with louder horns. This might be to make sure they are heard as they squeeze through the traffic, but It seems more aimed at intimidation in the sense of making the other drivers Think there is a car or van there that they didn't see.
We also notice that when drivers toot their horns to warn pedestrians that they are coming, that a lot of pedestrians take the opportunity to step out in the road anyway. It seems as if they hear the horn as a signal that the driver sees them, so it is then OK to step out because the drivers will try to avoid hitting them. (As mentioned previously, people really try Not to hit anyone or anything else, though they seem to brush against our car a lot and leave scratches.)
One of the neighbors in the building does not like all the horn honking and tooting, so she tells her driver not to use the horn. The drivers consider this a real handicap. Our driver, who has Sundays off drove for her one Sunday to get extra money when her driver could not come. He said he felt handicapped by not being able to use the horn- like driving with one arm!
Using the horn does seem to help in many situations, but sometimes there are so many vehicles blooking the left turn or right turn lane, who are going straight, that it does not good, though maybe it helps make them realize that they are impeding the flow of other vehicles. More likely, they think that it is people who are just trying to get in front of them.
On the subject of queues... people generally do not see the purpose. It is not unusual to be standing in a line at a store checkout and someone will wlak right up to the cashier and start to hand them money for what they want to purchase. Often the cashiers will tell the person to wait, which is good. Some of the bigger stores have better organized lines and people seems to follow them rather than jump ahead. Jim once was second in line to buy some tickets to go into a museum when somone came up and put money in the window and told the person how many tickets he wanted. Since Jim is a big guy he gave the guy a nasty look and then moved to completely block him from the ticket window until we had our tickets. Fortunately, the guy did not have a gun or knife, or he realized it was not worth violence. We hope the message starts to make sense, but it seems unlikely that a few instances will change a few thousand years of custom.
In a post a few weeks ago we mention our experience with getting a yellow fever vaccination. Just this week we saw an article in the newspaper about a "scandal" over yellow fever vaccinations. It seems that some one reported their experience to the newspaper. They bought their own vaccine at a pharmacy ( we would have done that if we knew where to get the stuff) and took it to the Public Health office to get the injection. They are the only ones who can legally do the injection and stamp the booklet showing it was done. The person was charged a high price for the injection even though they brought their own vaccine and they were not happy. The newspaper story writer had trouble focusing on what might have been going on, but it mentioned that there was a shortage of vaccine now in Bangalore- for the past couple weeks or so- after we got our injections. They wonder where the vaccine went. A lot of people got injections to go to South Africa to see cricket matches, but they reported that some vaccine seemed to be missing. Probably little will come of the story, but the newspapers do seem to be doing their part in reporting these kinds of things freely. It does give one cause for optimism that somethings might change over time.
Janet's knee was giving her lots of pain, but she has been getting physical therapy that seems to be helping.

Medical stuff

Janet has not been feeling well for the past week or so, though she is feeling somewhat better now. Her knee has been giving her pain for about 2 weeks- she thinks it might have started after a yoga class. She got a recommendation of a good doctor at one of the hospitals here - Wockhardt. This hospital has some affiliation with Harvard Medical School. We also saw it written up in the NY times before we came over last fall. The article was about how many people were coming to India for certain kinds of treatment due to the lower costs. In some cases, insurance companies will pay the cost to come over because it ends up being much cheaper over all. In general the doctors seem good. The costs are so low that we have not submitted anything for re-imbursement with our insurance so far. Janet just had an MRI and x-ray done- total cost about $130 and that is our largest expense so far.
Janet also had the flu- that is what seems better today. She knew she had it last Thursday and was quite miserable on Sat- Mon. and started feeling much better Tuesday.
This Friday Jim is signed up to have a "health check" done. This is a pretty comprehensive set of tests including blood test, ekg, stress test, and numerous others that take more than half a day to go through. The cost will be low too.
Of course, these costs are very low compared to what we are used too, but they are not so cheap relative to typical Indian salaries. Still they are a lower fraction of income. These hospitals are private ones- there are also government hospitals where care is free or even less expensive. People tell us the care is quite good at those, but it seems that most who can afford it, go to the private hospitals.
Prescription medications are generally available over the counter and they too, are not expensive. One does have to worry that they might be counterfeit drugs. The names of drugs are different from what we are used to, so this can be confusing, but the druggists generally seem to be able to find the right equivalent.
We'll see how Janet's knee does. Jim is hoping he doesn't get the flu. He has not have any worrisome illnesses since mid- January, though we both have minor complaints.

"A Blogworthy Tale"

Oh Boy! Oh Boy! These people came back to our home today and Ziggy got to sneak out the door when they were not watching! They watch too much, so this was a real treat! He got out of the main door and then looked around. Then he went upstairs to see what was up there- it was great! But then when he was coming back down and about to go further down stairs to see what was there one of these people came along and grabbed him against his will and made him come back inside! Mean! Mean! Mean! They can try to explain it to you- we're not listening now!
Jim and Janet writing now. We got up early this morning and joined our neighbor to go on a "Bangalore Walk". They have a website. We were ther before the planned 7AM start and more people trickled in as we waited. There were about 18 or 20 total, which the leader later said was more than usual. The walk started at Holy Trinity Church which is at one end of MG Road (Mahatma Gandhi Rd- most cities have at least one road named after him.) The church dates from 1852 and is largely unchanged since then. It was primarily a church used by British Army officers while they were stationed here in Bangalore. The city was used heavily by the British as a base because it is centrally located in southern India and the weather is pretty good compared to much of the rest of India. (high temps today in the 70's F) We learned quite a bit on this walk. Winston Churchill was stationed here around 1898. We walked west along MG road and stopped to look at the outside of a couple old homes that still survive on this major road, but were told that most are gone. It seems that once they are 100 years old then it is more difficult to get permits to tear them down. So many are sold when they are about 95 and then torn down within the next few tears to build something else. We saw the Bible Society building, which apparently houses a free museum. As we walked we saw place after place where an old building once stood, but has been either replaced by a new building or is in the process of being replaced. As we walked along we saw the progress on the "Bangalore Metro". This is to be some sort of train on a set of raised concrete columns. We have heard nothing but complaints about how slowly this project has progressed, but we see MG road nearly every week and we have seen noticeable progress on this project, though it seems to have a long way to go yet too.
We were told that Bangalore was the first city to be electrified in Asia. This in 1904 -1906 depending on who you believe. We were told that this came about partly due to a need to to mine gold east of the city and partly because the Maharaja of Mysore was a far thinking kind of guy.
Our walk ended with words about another old building that was destroyed just a year ago, but also with words that another new building nearby was where a , now large, Indian Software and services company got its start. We then went to breakfast at "Ebony"- a well know restaurant on MG road that is famous for the views from the top of the building.
We later went to a somewhat more suburban area to get groceries at a good supermarket. The grocery stores vary a lot- from poor to almost as good as we have near our home. Our main complaints with the good ones are that they are crowded into too little space and that we can't seem to find all that we want at one such store, so we go to 2or 3 or 4 different places. For some places, like for breads and pastries, there are specialty shops that do a good job at these.
Sweets shops also specialize. So, it seems like a case where the big stores have not quite gotten to the point where these specialty shops lose business.
We had another interesting experience this past week. We needed to get Yellow Fever vaccinations. We did some checking and found that only a public health facility here in Bangalore could give the vaccine. Te alternative is to go to Chennai or Delhi or Mumbai. The web site gave fairly explicit instructions, but we know not to trust what they say. Our driver found the place and asked them how to make an appointment, and we found a time and he made the appointment. He had to buy 2 syringes as well. We went on the appointed day and were a little early. The building is a rather delapidated place. We went in and met the Doctor who checked our passports and agreed to give us the vaccinations. They wanted to know if we needed a receipt and they said that they are only supposed to give the shots if ten people are present because the bottle needs to be used once opened. We thought we understood what was going on and said that we did not need a receipt as long as we got the booklet stamped. It seemed clear that the money was not going to go into the public treasury. Our driver said someone else asked for some money "for the good of government employees" for helping to get us the vaccinations. We just hope that we got the real vaccine - or that we never encounter the illness!
Ziggy got out of the apartment when we came home from grocery shopping. Fortunately he went up the stairs that lead to the roof and that door is normally locked. On his way down, Jim caught him and brought him back inside- despite his vocal objections. He never bites or scratches. If he went down stairs he could go a lot further, but we might notice he is missing before he got all the way down to the ground floor.