The recovery suits the current crew wore a few entries back are, it turns out, a family tradition with a long and undistinguished history. This photograph is the reason the tradition exists.
Paradox came home from the vet with a plastic cone and a printed sheet of instructions. The instructions said rest. They said quiet. They said, in bold type, no jumping. Everyone read them. One of us read them and formed her own view.
Recovery, reinterpreted
She was found — after a search of every reasonable place a convalescing cat might be — on top of the curtain valance, up by the ceiling, cone and all. Getting there involved at minimum the door, and physics that have never been fully reconstructed. She looked down at the search party with the calm of a patient who has read the discharge notes and found them advisory.
She healed fine. The cone came off on schedule, the valance kept a permanent dent, and the household learned the lesson it still applies today: the equipment can be prescribed, but the altitude is non-negotiable.