202: What Happened Next

Sometimes things happen in pairs and it may be assumed by observers that there is a causal relationship between event A and event B when their sequential occurrence is perhaps mere coincidence.

Take last Tuesday night, for example.

For the first time ever, I somehow got trapped in the dining room. The door is normally left open so I can roam at will and, especially, get to my water bowl in the kitchen.

For some reason, the door somehow became closed (just a draught ….  or something more mysterious).  I panicked (a little) and started scrabbling (is that a real word?) at the door trying to nudge it open.  My paws are not very dexterous and all I did was to close the door more firmly by pushing it.

TOWTSH must have heard the scrabbling or the click as the door finally shut (or both, of course) and decided to come downstairs to investigate - knowing my scrabbling  might indicate a need on my part to go in the garden and urinate.

He knew he had to be quick so simply grabbed a dressing gown and came down the stairs barefooted (and empty-headed?).   The staircase has 14 stairs (with a 90 degree turn after the first 3.  According to his later report, after step 10, TOWTSH’s bare foot slipped on the carpet.  Gravity took over and he bounced down the remaining few stairs. Unfortunately as his body came to the rest (after contact with the last couple of steps and the floor), his head did not.  It fell forward and then bounced back until the back of his head met the stairs once again. 

He uttered some sort of strange noise which worried me (who had heard but not seen what happened) and finally woke TOWTLH, who grabbed her dressing down and went to investigate.  She found her husband at the bottom of the stairs, rubbing his head - but luckily saw no blood.

The point of this anecdote is simply to ask “Did my incident with the door cause the accident?”  I am refusing to accept responsibility citing factors such TOWTSH’s lack of footwear, excessive speed and inappropriate or insufficient use of the handrail.

Cause or coincidence? I leave you to judge.

(Footnote: TOWTSH was, and is, OK.  He had a sore head and bruisibg but no lasting damage (as far as we know!)