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Ouch! Poor grandson.
Rosie already has been down the laundry chute twice.
The top of the chute is at floor level in the upstairs bathroom.  She likes
to pull open the horizontal door with hinges at the bottom and climb in and
sit on the ledge next to the chute. It empties into cupboard above the chest
freezer in the downstairs laundry room. The entire distance is about five or
six cat-lengths.
The first time she went down was when I trapped her, took her to the vet for
a spay, brought her home and released her in that bathroom. I put some
cardboard over the chute to block the hole, in case she managed to get into
the cupboard and go down.
Well, Rosie was a wily little feral, totally wild, and in the middle of the
night, she managed to open the door, wiggle under the cardboard and down she
went.  She then got out of the downstairs cupboard and found the kitchen
window, where she woke us up by howling and pacing to get out.
The second time Rosie went down the chute was a couple of years later.  I
think she was just doing a gravity test.
Lately, she's been jumping up on the chest freezer in the downstairs laundry
room and asking me to open the cupboard so she can look up the chute.  She
complains when there is laundry blocking her view.
Annie

Thank you, Britta.
The surgery instantly stopped the pain and numbness in his leg.  He never
did get back to flying, though, because there was too much unexpected
residual damage to the muscles and nerves in his leg.  As they heal, he will
suddenly get a terrible muscle cramp that literally can bring him to his
knees.  Because of this he can't pass the first-class flight physical.
Otherwise, he is doing great and can stand long periods of time and walk
normally again.  He does exercises to strengthen the muscles that keep his
spine in line.
He is taking an early retirement because we can get a lump sum retirement.
We decided that it was in our best interest to take whatever we could get
and run now before the company takes any more concessions from the
employees, takes away the lump sum option, and turns the pension plan over
to the government.   This is the current trend in the U.S., now.
The company asks for concessions to stay in business and offers a pension as
deferred compensation.  Then the company doesn't contribute into the plan
what they promise, but there's no shortage of "golden parachutes" for the
upper management when they decide to bail out.
Sorry for the rant.
The party was a lot of fun.  We had a bunch of people. When the crowd
thinned out, Cinder came down and demanded to be admired.  Rosie went back
to the laundry chute and came out when they left and complained that her
dinner was late.
Annie