Ow! Are you crazy? — I hissed. — Let go!

But he didn’t let go. He braced himself against the ladder with his paws and pulled me down, as if on purpose.

Inside me, irritation battled with a strange sense of unease. “Why is he doing this?” I thought. “Is he playing? But no, there was something more in his eyes. A persistent warning. As if he were trying to tell me: ‘Don’t go up there.’”