Guard duty

There was an almighty thud-thud from upstairs; Mr Perkins coming through his upstairs cat flap. He doesn’t tend to check whether the door is open or not, so I got up to check. There was more thudding as I went up the stairs. What on earth was going on in there?

The door was shut, so I opened it to let what was no doubt a sheepish-looking Mr Perkins out. But I found Big Tabby.

He was trying to escape by jumping back up at the window, but he kept falling to the floor with a thud-thud.

I called Mr Pandammonium – I’m a bit scared of Big Tabby – and he came upstairs.

I opened the door again and let Big Tabby out. Big Tabby has a deep voice, and he’s not afraid to use it. He went into the bedroom and tried to get out the window, which was closed.

Mr Pandammonium tried to tempt him out from behind the curtains with food, but he was having none of it. He stroked him instead – Big Tabby let him! Emboldened, I offered my hand to Big Tabby to sniff, but he wasn’t interested, which I decided was permission to stroke him.

His fur was soft, and I felt less afraid of him, but he was still keen to escape. We’re not sure what he had in mind when he came in.

We steered him towards the stairs, which he ran down. In the kitchen, he headed straight for the cat flap into the back porch, where he’s been before. He seemed a bit flummoxed by the outer cat flap despite having been through it before. Perhaps it was because he saw guard cat Mr Perkins sitting outside behind the car.

Luckily for Big Tabby, Mr Perkins was oblivious to Big Tabby’s slinking presence until he got past. Mr Perkins was affronted, and stared at Big Tabby, who sprawled on the road as if he hadn’t just trapped himself in someone else’s house. Mr Perkins kept watch long after Big Tabby had gone.