4 min read
She aced it 💪
Cats are great climbers, but one kitty named Lalah has taken her skills to an entirely new level.
Found as a kitten dodging traffic in front of Boulbaka 2, a rock climbing gym in Okinawa, Japan, Lalah has been able to perfect her technique from a young age.
“I decided to shelter her in the gym,” Mitsuru Goan, the gym’s owner, told The Dodo. “Since then, she has been a manager of our facility, saying ‘Meow!’ to visitors every day.”
As a kitten, Lalah would jump on the shelves and climb up a rope that hung from the ceiling. Goan brushed it off as normal cat behavior until she also started climbing up stepladders to reach the rock wall.
“She got the confidence to try,” Goan said. “Then she started to touch those holds on the wall for bouldering — trying to go higher.”
Lalah watched the other climbers on the wall, mimicking their movements. And as she grew bigger, she was able to reach more and more handholds. She never got treats for climbing the rock wall, but encouragement from the small crowds who gathered to watch seemed enough for her.
Finally, one day, Lalah made it all the way to the top.
The gym regularly changes the arrangements of rocks on the wall, and when they altered Lalah’s wall, she lost interest.
Lalah now prefers to spend her days resting and basking in the attention of the gym-goers. “She loves to slip in visitors’ bags and sleep there,” Goan said. “You need to pay attention not to bring her home with you.”
But every now and then, Goan catches Lalah staring at the wall, as if she’s plotting something.
“She still climbs up the rope up to the ceiling, about 16 feet high, to have a workout,” Goan said. “Maybe she is ready for a new challenge.”