Today we’ll continue our theme of Franklin’s love of clambering onto things and being up high and talk about his climbing abilities! I think especially given that he was mostly blind and particularly seemed to lack depth perception that this indicates Franklin’s dedication to the sport. Honestly if he wasn’t less than ten pounds and a cat, he could have been the next Alex Honnold. And yes, Franklin did all of his climbs free solo.

I wondered sometimes what the purpose of climbing was for Franklin since he probably couldn’t really see much up there, again due to being mostly blind. It was more like, once he felt he could go up he had to keep going. Like many of our greatest mountaineers, he did it “because it was there”. There, of course, being mostly bookshelves and other sorts of high furniture. This is how Anna’s dresser got three long scratch marks in its veneer.

There were a couple times where Franklin’s climbing was really impressive. One was when we went to the beach with Anna’s family and Franklin stayed with Anna’s sister’s cat Cowboy in a room with two bunk beds. Franklin loooved Cowboy and that will be the subject of a future post with lots more about them, but let’s just say for now that they were great friends and played a lot. So anyway, Cowboy showed Franklin in the room that he could jump up onto the top bunk. Franklin, being *blind* did not have the same jumping ability – I think honestly he could have jumped that far but it was more that he couldn’t see where he was going so he never really practiced. But Franklin did figure out that he could, just barely, climb up the ladder to the top bunk! It was an amazing feat of strength, and at one point he even climbed up the wrong side of the ladder (so he was in fact under the bed). What a guy.

The second time – and this was the really crazy one – was only when we had had Franklin for a couple of months. There is a large metal grate that can swing over and cover the window in our living room that faces the fire escape, and we typically have it swung back so the window isn’t covered. Franklin was very very curious about this grate, since it has parallel bars and we saw him attempting to move up it a few times but never getting very far. One morning, I came out to the living room and in the course of his usual morning exploration, Franklin started climbing up the grate! To my astonishment, he made it to the top! This was like at least 11 or 12 feet up and so I was very proud but also worried, since there was only a thin metal bar and he was standing on it! So I ran over and had to help him down. A little later, he climbed up it again, and this time, got down some of the way on his own but then slipped and fell. He didn’t try to fully climb it after then. But the achievement remains!

Him climbing the grate:

Also climbing on a high window:

Keep climbing my friend!

Love,

Garrett