A Little Cat of Very Big Consequence

Last week we got a fright at our house.  Well in truth it was me who got the fright, thankfully no one else was upset by a drama that unfolded in our home over a 13 hour period.

Our pet cat Berry went missing.  It never happened before, in 8 ½ years we have always known where she is.  This knowledge has been facilitated by a very distinctive squawking sound she makes.  That and the fact that she doesn’t seem to be aware that she’s actually feline, which has led to some distinctively odd behaviour on her part.

She likes to bathe for instance, not in a puddle in the back garden, but in our bath or shower, particularly on warm days, she waits for the water to go down to her comfort level, then she gets in and sits in it.  Cooling her derrière and paws.  She then very considerately gets out and dries herself on the floor mat.  Honestly, she loves it.  She always loves anything garlicky in flavour, eats things off her paw and can open the fridge.  She’s a little odd I’ll admit, but she’s ours and we love her very much.

So when she didn’t come home one morning last week, I was glad the 6 year old was at school and the 3 year old was oblivious.  He came for a walk with me around where we live to look for her, when that proved fruitless; we went for a drive around our village to try find her.  No sign anywhere.

I came home deflated and worried, contemplating how I would break news of our cat’s disappearance to the family, in particular to the 6 year old.

Our cat has been a really good pet to us.  On cold mornings, she jumps up behind our children to warm their backs while they eat breakfast.  Last February while my other half was away and both children were sick, she kept me company on the landing while I watched over my feverish little uns.  In fact, when I was with one, she would sit outside the door of the other and she did this all night long as though it was as much her job as mine.

During the summer, when my other half was sick in hospital, she literally kept watch over me, following me all over the house day and night.  Running to the car when we came home as though checking for news of how her male human was doing.

We, as a family really appreciate her, so when I saw her limp up the garden just before the school run last week, relief flooded through me.  We don’t know what happened to her during her 13 hour disappearance, she had been hiding under the deck for some time, so she must have had a hurt somewhere, but she came home and that’s what mattered most.

Last night she appeared to have disappeared again and I got worried.

Imagine how rubbish I felt when my other half discovered I had locked her in the shed for five hours when I was putting the kids bicycles away. DOH!

P.S.: No animals were harmed in the writing of this blog, just a little annoyed by their human’s stupidity.