I've always told my wife that some stupid cat would be the death of me.

that thought, and a lot of others, flashed trhough my mind the other night when I was flying through the air, about to land on a brick sidewalk.

Naturally, a cat was the cause.

We have a cat who insists on going outside. We know this is against the law, but even though we showed the cat a copy of the city ordinance and lectured him, he ingored us.

We try to keep him in, but he was born on a farm and had a taste of the outdoors that he cna't seem to shake.

Anyway, this cat frequently sneaks outdoors and since he is elderly and neutered, he usually sleeps under bushes in the shade during the day.

If he manages to get out at night, he hunts. This doesn't involve expending much energy becasue as with many cats, his hunting technique involves itting still, waiting for prey to run by and then grabbing it.

This is remarkably effective. So much so that I have learned the cry of this cat when he wants to bring in a catch to show us.

I was going to bed the other night wehn I heard this cry.

I looked out the door and there stood the cat, a baby bunny in his mouth. I know that one little baby bunny less in the world won't make much difference, but sitll I was outraged. It didn't seem fair.

I opened the door to take the bunny way from the cat. The cat had been throught this before with other baby animals, so he know what was coming and started to run.

It was dark, it was raiing and I was on a brick sidewalk, but I took after the cat.

He slowed at the steps leading dwon to the back yard and I grabbed him by his tail, which was sticking straight up in the air.

Unfortunately, I still had quite a it of momentum and when I tried to stop, I skidded on some wet grass that had grown up between the bricks of the sidewalk.

Luckily, it was dark and I couldn't see where I was going to land. I knew only that I was about to fly down three steps and thud down awkwardly somewhere, either on the curving sidewalk or in the rose bed.

I hit once on my right foot and hopped on my left foot before landing on my side on the sidewalk.

I lay there, taking inventory to see whether I was injured and where, and wondering how I would explain this in the emergency room it I was hurt.

Gradually, I realized I was fine except for a few scrapes from running barefoot on bricks. I also realized I still had hold of the cat's tail and he still had hold of the rabbit. They had made the short flight with me.

I picked the cat up and made him release the bunny and put the cat back in the house. The little rabbit sat there for a minute, stunned I guess.

I picked the bunny up and explained that he had better get out of there and try to be a little more careful in the future.

I sat him down and-like my kids, eager to escape my lectures-he ran off.

I f history is any indicatory, I will see that bunny or one of his kind again. But next time I will remember my short, stupid flight.

From now on, the prey is on its own.