I never met a Siamese who was not qualified to yowl for his (or her) country.

I once had a black moggy with obvious Siamese ancestry who climbed onto the roof of a three-storey house a block away from home, and failed to figure out how to get down by herself. Instead, she stood on the eavestrough cover and sounded off, achieving such volume that I heard her from my front porch -- as did the rest of the neighbourhood, of course.

I hied myself toward the unearthly racket and found the residents standing in the driveway, looking up and talking about calling the fire brigade. One of the neighbours offered a step-ladder, and we took it up to the top of the fire escape. As he held the ladder, I climbed onto the very top (hanging onto the bargeboards and in fear of my life) and wheedled and coaxed until the damnable cat came over to investigate. I grabbed her, but could not climb down safely while holding her. So I passed her to the kind man who owned the step-ladder, and as I began to edge back to terra firma the cat broke loose and took off.

When I got home (after a full slate of apologies), she was sitting on the porch rail as if nothing had happened.