Sunday, January 28, 2007

Missing... and found!

Scooby gave us all a bit of a scare on Friday after he went missing. To understand why it was such an ordeal it's best if I tell you abit about Scooby's character. When I am at home he stays in most of the time sleeping. If he goes out he usually spends at the most of an hour out before coming back. he's in and out usually all day. Scooby never misses a meal. That is why at midday on Fridat without seeing Scooby since he went out in the morning I was a bit worried. Brushing aside my anxieties as over-protectiveness the hours passed and I did nothing. When my parents returned they were surprised of his absence but told me he had probably just found somewhere to sleep that was warm, perhaps his friends, Beryl and Alan's house. An hour later my mind couldn't rest so I went round to see if he was there. They hadn't seen him all day, which to them was surprising because he usually visited half a dozen times! I panicked. It wasn't like Scooby at all. Morgan too seemed worried in his own way. He wouldn't settle down and kept popping out.

We really started to panic when it got dark though. It was most unlike Scooby. We walked round the streets calling his name and again, at the sound of his name Scooby usually appears galloping across the grass anticipating a cuddle - or food. We decided that an explanation was he was accidentally shut in a garage so we, including Morgan, went to the neighbours asking if they had seen him (Morgan offered to look round their house - or was he just being nosy?) and politely asked for them to look in their sheds.

It was still early days, he had only been missing for 12 hours, but the bad thoughts sneak into your minds uninvited. Thankfully, when at the RSPCA, Scooby (as is Morgan) was microchipped. These microchips are tiny, like a grain of rice, and are painlessly placed under the animals skin with a unique number. When a cat or or other animal is admitted to an animal centre they are always scanned for a microchip whereby the details of the animals "owners" are placed on a database so if found can be contacted and reunited. It gave us some reassurance that if he had become disorientated or injured we could be identified as his family. This was one of the fears we had for him.

At 9 we went for a last trawl round the streets willing him to come out from wherever he was. We would never ever have given up on Scooby however we placated ourseleves with the fact there was little more we could do tonight to find him and faced a night without him.At 9.30 who should walk through the door but Scooby. I can say that I’ve never been so glad to see him before in my life. We are not sure what happened to him but presume he got shut somewhere, which does happen and we are not bitter towards the person who did it as we know well of the curiosity of cats and (unlike people) their delicate, if not sly, way of doing things. Ourselves have gone out to see Morgan's paw coming under the locked door of the garage. It was quite traumatic for everyone but I think it was for Scooby. He wouldn’t go out hardly yesterday and today - even less than usual. We don’t know what happened to him (and he's refusing to talk about it) but we are presuming that he got shut up somewhere.

Thanks to God that he is back, that's all we can say.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Part 2: Our holiday

...continued from last week
I am going to describe the room we stayed in. It was long and thin. We slept in a nicely made bed. I have never slept in a bed before, well not since I was small. We have beds, don’t think we don’t, but there is usually somewhere better to sleep especially when the humans warm up seats for us. Katty had bought my triangle for me (she gave the scratching post to Scooby), one home comfort that made all the difference. The lady who looked after us was calm and nice she had a sweet smell of cats on her and there was a calm atmosphere in the place. We had room service twice a day. I was a bit worried that we would miss out on our nightly treat of catnip but to my relief it came to us each night. I’m not a cat to hide my feelings and so I made it plain that I expected high quality service (Katty had left us here so it is ok to expect nothing less than the best, I am a Prince after all). Through the week I went through a washing machine of emotions... at first I was disorientated, then I was angry, then curious, bewildered, sad, hungry, full, relaxed, sleepy, angry, hungry again, anxious, sleepy, sleepy still, tired, peckish… Finally when I first saw Katty again I was a bit annoyed because she decided to come in when I was asleep but apart from that I was relieved to see her. I wanted to ask her lots of questions: why could I smell cat on her? Had she been cheating on me? But I didn’t have time because no sooner had I seen the door open she was smothering me with love and it was too close for my liking but for once I didn’t meow a sound and just put up with it (her sporadic exhibitions of love for me are quite embarrassing – you have to accept Katty, I’m not your baby anymore, I’m nearly 3 years old!). Out came The Cage and I thought ‘oh no where are you taking me this time?’ I tried to resist (that bought back memories) but I didn’t have a choice as I was pushed in there by not one, not two but three people. I was taken into the car and we drove back. Where were we going I thought? I was a bit worried but Katty was back and though I wouldn’t trust anyone or being with my life I know in my heart Katty would never intentionally scare me or hurt me. Call it cat’s intuition but when we parked I knew we were home. That familiar smell soon went up my nose and I knew I was home once more. As a cat I don’t look back in anger, in fact I don’t look back at all however I felt I learned a valuable lesson from my adventure: cats don’t like holidays and if you hear the word ‘cattery’ it’s best to run out the cat flap
.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Part 1: Our Holiday by Morgan

Sorry we haven't posted recently. We were just getting over Christmas when the suitcases came out. Scooby was bemused but me being the cleverer one (obviously) knew what was going on straight away. They call it a holiday. I have a long memory of these holidays; Katty leaves us at home when she goes. It makes me sad and Katty always looks sad too. Apart from the suitcases there are ways to tell when a holiday is coming. Firstly we get spoilt. Katty gets guilty and I hear shouting. She tells us she loves us a lot... Scooby has just said she always tells us she loves us and though that’s true instead of telling us 5 times a day, she tells us 10. It’s a bad sign when she says that she would never ever let anything bad happen to us, that usually means that something is going to happen. She whispers it in my ear at the vet. The last sign is when the cat flap won't let you out. Usually in the morning its locked but it's not the morning it's the early evening. That’s when I panic. It happened last time when I went to the vet to get my scar and the time before to get prodded and poked at the vets so I think we are going to the vets but then Scooby isn’t allowed out either. We have never gone to the vets together before. Is this better or worse? I don’t know. I look at Scooby to see what he thinks but he’s never been a cat bowl of information it’s me who usually sniffs something being wrong first. I here the word cattery said again and again and I wonder if that has something to do with it.After a while The Cage comes out. This is bad news. The Cage emerges just before we go in the car usually. The Cage is my cue to hide. As I stand looking it disappears. In its place a body starts coming nearer to me. I don’t care whose it is. I leg it. Across the front room, behind the sofa, stop… take a breath, peep out from behind. No-one that way. I turn round and see a dark shadow. Out from behind the sofa, under some chairs. The chairs move and I run into the path of another person. That person, I don’t even look who it is, tries shoving me in the The Cage. Paws and legs outstretched they can’t get me in. I use my body to push up and wriggle as much as I can. They give up and put Scooby in there. Scooby’s not as much as a pro as me. He wriggles as well but it’s in vain. For obvious reasons, we only have one of The Cage. Scooby’s in that so I think I don’t have to worry but they try to get me in a cardboard box. I feel defeated – momentarily. The close the lid so I can’t jump up. There are little holes in the side big enough for me to put my paws through and see out and that gives me an idea… If I can’t get out the top I’ll have to get out the side. I’ll push my way out. Katty was absolutely gob smacked she told me later. Using the force of my body I ripped a nice Morgan sized hole in the side of it (I’m proud) and go and sit victoriously on the top of the stairs. No-one chases me, no-one calls my name. I lie purring. I hear the front door open and bangs shut as usual. The voices go and the car starts up. It’s a victory for Morgan…
…I thought so anyway. Mum came back 10 minutes later for me. She threw me in the cage quicker than you could say “catnip.” Katty wasn’t with her. Has she taken her to the same place she’s taking me? We draw up at a house. No mention of vets just holidays. I was carried through in the open air but I could sniff the resident cats there. I was finally rested in a warm room. I could smell the previous cats who had been there but it wasn’t a smell of fear like at the vets, it was more of… food. Yes, it smelt of food and it was cosy and nice but it wasn’t home. Katty tried to tempt me with some food – ham, but I was too busy exploring. I could see Scooby next to me but a glass wall separated us. I was very inquisitive. It looked nice enough but what was it all about? I couldn’t understand. I looked at Katty for reason. She just looked sad. She whispered words to me but I didn’t want to hear she gave up and went next door to Scooby who had already (surprise, surprise) settled down in his bed. After a while mum spoke. Katty looked even sadder. It made me sad. Where was I? Why was I here? I had questions rushing through my head. I looked at the person who could perhaps answer them – Katty – but with little more than a goodbye she was already gone.

Where are they and what is a holiday? Find out next Thursday in Part 2 of my tail