As some of you may know we recently got a new dog and our cats have been pretty freaked out by this new addition to the family, so much so that they have pretty much resided in the basement and rarely venture upstairs due to the dog. My work space (i.e. desk) at home is in the basement so I occasionally see the cats as the move from one hiding place to another, but this day I really hadn't seen much of them.
Then I heard a noise above my head and just as I looked up to the ceiling I saw the suspended ceiling start to fall. I instantly stood up to catch the ceiling as one of the tiles fell to the floor revealing one of the cats. My quick action and the fact that the ceiling tile she was on had just dropped she started to scramble toward the opening that the two cats had made to get into the ceiling. As she scramble I noticed the other cat, wide eyed looking at me from the space between the rafters and drop ceiling. He too became spooked by the events and started to move toward the same exit as his sister. This caused the supports to flex even more which caused a chain reaction as these supports on either end of the 20 foot room lost contact with the frame and every thing came tumbling down on top of me and the cats scrambled to safety like someone trying to save themselves from walking on thin ice and having it start to crack and fall out from under them. In an instant I was standing there with ceiling tiles and twisted aluminum frame all around and on top of me. I was in total disbelief as I stood there looking at the aftermath of this minor disaster!
Fortunately no one was hurt, the cats besides being totally freaked out were uninjured and I wasn't hurt at all. I was just shocked at what had just happened and trying to figure out how to get out of the twisted mess that was surrounding me. I finally eased the part of the ceiling I was still holding down to rest on my desk and moved toward the stairs to get a perspective on what had just happen.
This mess had to be cleaned but I was still working so I pulled out my phone and took a picture of the carnage to let my team and manager that I would be unavailable for a little while. I also sent the picture to my wife with the caption of "Look what your cats did!" Fortunately the only things that were damaged and could not be salvaged were the light covers, everything else I was able return to usable shape and make the needed repairs to the ceiling! I have made sure that the cats can no longer get into the space below the floor and that there is extra support for the support frame above me.
What the cats did to my basement!
After the clean up and repairs
