Groper with Tomato and Basil Salad

I was attending a very pleasant lunch at one of the city's best hotels the other day. As I gazed around the room at everyone wearing their best bib and tucker, sipping wine and relishing the delightful food, I was immensely pleased they couldn't see what I was doing not an hour earlier.

I'd called a cab to take me downtown and had just headed out the door to wait for it when I heard this rather plaintive little miaow from nearby. I looked up on the roof that spans our barbecue area and there, peeking down at me was precious little white puss, Rosie. She had walked along the top of an adjoining fence and leapt up onto the roof, but clearly didn't have the nerve for the return journey.

I didn't have the time to go down to the garage for our large ladder but pulled out a small stepladder and managed to get up to the top of that. I should mention at this stage I have absolutely no head for heights and if I am on a ladder, I need something I can grab with my hand - a wall, a shelf or, in this case the edge of the roof.

Rosie came over to me when I called her, but when I tried to scoop her up under her tummy, she backed off. In the end I had to grab her by the scruff of the neck. It was at this stage I realised that with a cat in my right hand, I could no longer clutch at the wall on that side to maintain my balance. And I was wearing high heeled shoes...

I had to go for broke and swung the cat off the roof, planning to drop her and then grab at the wall before I lost my balance. But she decided to dig her claws into my forearm as I pulled her off the roof. We reached a kind of impasse. I was frozen to the spot. She wouldn't let go of me. I couldn't spend the afternoon perched on the top of the step ladder so in the end I had to lower my arm, release my grip on Rosie's scruff and hope she would detach herself gently. For a small cat she has a mean grip - and long claws. She hung on there for a while before getting the idea that the ground was not too far away and she dropped off.

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