Up on the roof

A week or so ago, I heard thumping and banging under the solar panels on my roof, and often after dark. The roof is metal, so relatively small thumps sound louder than they actually are, and I thought it was birds nesting under the panels, however, it was odd it was happening in the dark when birds are usually quiet.

A couple nights ago, there was another bang on the roof, so I grabbed a torch and went outside and shined it under the panels. There didn’t seem to be anything there. The mystery continued.

Today I was watching the evening news after my dinner, and then another bang—except this time it was still daylight. I went outside on the patio and Leo ran out, too, just as we both saw a cat jump down from my roof onto the fence. It ran along the fence top, Leo barking all the way, and it stopped on the top of the neighbours’ fence, and paused, maybe unsure where to go next. It hadn’t noticed me standing there so I took a step forward, it looked over at me, then jumped down into the neighbours’ yard (I don’t know where the cat lives). I had no idea I’m so scary looking!

After the cat was gone, I again looked under the panels, this time with the benefit of daylight, and I still didn’t see any birds or nests. There’s plant debris under them, though, so maybe birds had been there at some point. I think the loud bang may have been happening when the cat landed on the roof after jumping up onto it from the top of the fence.

The cat may have done that just to lay on the warm (but no longer hot) roof, and it left after dark when the roof was cool. Or maybe the cat really was hunting. Either way, I’m not keen on having an unknown cat think it’s okay to bang around on my roof. Still, at least I now know what was making all that noise—and I had yet another new life experience, so there’s that.

After dark tonight, heavy rain, and even thunder, returned, so that means the cat won’t be back tonight. As we all know, cats, like Mogwai (Gremlins), don’t fare well when wet.