One Small Step For Cat

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellows,

Cattica is nearly complete. The guys apologised and said they are going to have to return for an hour or so on Monday just to hang the gate. They ran out of the right kind of screws, they said. 

We have been so impressed with this crew. They are polite, friendly and always tidy up after themselves every day. They even take on Caro's more bizarre requests.

"A hedgehog door?" they asked.

"Yes," said Caro. "We have hedgehogs that come to visit and they need a door."

"Okay," they said.

But when it came time to cut the hedgehog door, the guys wondered how the hedgehogs could get to it, as the fence placed it quite high above the brambles outside.

"We could build some hedgehogs steps," they suggested. 

I'll blip the hedgehog steps and the Tiggywinkle door tomorrow.

But today it was all about Punky. We blocked up the hole where the gate will be hung and opened the back door. Punky was so SOOOO nervous and just sat inside the back door for ages.

However, today's picture shows the moment when he put his paw on the deck for the first time. BUT WAIT. 

It's time for a FLASHBACK.

May 18th 2012
I'd slept badly. This goes back to the days when we still had Tiggy the Little Black and White Cat. She LOVED me, but she also had a weird condition where she was allergic to her own teeth. Really. This is a thing. We had to have all her teeth removed, but it didn't fix the problem entirely.

Her allergy manifested itself with her occasionally going nuts chewing at nothing and pawing at her own mouth. This kept Caro awake, but Tiggy insisted on sleeping next to me. So for the last year of Tiggy's life I had to sleep with her in the living room. She'd had a really bad night and I was just settling back down to sleep when...

"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! PUNKY!"

So back at the flat in Leith, we used to let Punky out of the window. The window only looked out onto a car park, but the little guy liked to go out there to sniff the air. To keep him safe we put some netting up, so he could feel like he was outside, but couldn't run out into the cars.

However, this particular morning he had seen a bird, CRASHED through the netting after it and disappeared across the parking lot. Freaked out by a car, he disappeared over a wall. 

And so that was why Caro woke me at 5am, and asked me to go outside in the pouring rain to see if I could find Punky. I remember walking around and around for hours, calling his name and losing hope I'd ever find him.

I had to go to work, promising Caro I would look for him again when I got home. But I reminded her that we were also meeting the Princess, LB and AliWack that evening at Khushi's.

As it turned out, when I got home from work it was STILL raining. And Punky was still nowhere to be found. Caro was working late, so I left her a message that he'd most likely come home when he was hungry and we'd check the SPCA the next day. And off I went to the pub where AliWack, LB and the Princess were in a DRINKIN' mood.

Meanwhile, Caro couldn't let it go. When she got home, she decided to engage in a bit of breaking and entering. She HEAVED herself over the wall Punky had last disappeared over and had a look around. 

And he was right there. 

Where he'd been ALL DAY. 

Too frightened to move, or even meow at me when I was calling for him. 

Caro stuffed him into her cat bag and considered how she was going to get out again. Instead she called me. By this time I'd had a few so when she told me that she and Punky were stuck in someone's back yard I suggested she call the police to come and let her out.

She has never let me forget this. But I still think it was a sensible suggestion. I mean. What could I have done if I were there?

In the event, she summoned some superhuman strength and managed to wrestle both herself and a panicky Punky back over the wall. She was scraped and bruised and covered in sh*t from the climb. 

On the way home, she ran into someone from her work who noticed Caro's "gym bag" and asked her if she'd had a good work out.

Her answer contained a few bad words. 

When Caro called me again I encouraged her to come out with us to drink away the trauma and relax. It didn't quite work out that way on account of she was ULTRA-SOBER and we were all totally hammered by the time she arrived. And as I recall LB and the Princess nearly got us thrown out of Khushi's for singing "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" as loudly as possible.

And then AliWack was so hungover the next morning he slept through his alarm and missed his flight to Malta the next day. I think he spent his summer holiday in Peebles instead.  

But I've strayed off the subject a little bit. My point is this. The ONLY time Punky has ever been outside it has been a total disaster. For all concerned*. So Caro and me were extremely apprehensive to see how it went this time. 

The little guy took it very slowly. While Jasper puttered in and out, back and forth, Punky slinked around, staying low and sniffing everything. His eyes were as big as saucers and his ears twitched this way and that for any sign of menace. 

I stayed outside with him for 45 minutes, making sure he was safe and not trying to leap the fence or anything. After about 40 minutes he FINALLY summoned up the courage to step off the deck and on to the grass. He schnuppered around happily, but it was getting dark and I ushered him inside for the night.

"Eep?" he said as the back door closed. I told him he could go back out again tomorrow.

"Eep?" he said, indicating he would quite like to go out again NOW.

"Eep? Eep? Eep? Eep? Eep? Eep? Eep?"

Oh bugger. What have I done?

"Eep?"

So that's him. He's an outdoors cat now and loving it. I'll make sure I'm with him for the next few times he's outdoors. He's a clever little chap and if there is a security weakness in the Punky Playpen, he will find it. 

We can't have Caro climbing any more walls, is what I am saying. And they don't even HAVE a Khushi's here. AND you don't bring me flowers anymore.

S.

* Well, for me and Caro at least. I don't think we can blame him for AliWack missing his flight.