Regrets

Do you ever want to give yourself a good, hard kick?  A kick that will shift the brains from your backside back to where they should be?  Maybe you don't misplace your brains the way I lost mine yesterday.

And the one to suffer was my cat, Alleycat.  She's a flighty thing, in the nearly three years she has shared her life with me she has never liked to be touched much.  She'll come and rub against me but the minute a hand goes towards her she's gone.  When anyone comes into the house she'll make herself scarce.   But she is a talker, the loudest, most talkative cat I've ever come across.  She can be a right pain when I'm on the phone because if she hears my voice she thinks I'm talking to her and joins in the conversation, so loudly that people have been known to ask if the cat they can hear is alright.

Like a lot of cats she loves a box to hide in.

She's great little hunter, usually brings in at least one mouse a day for me to stand on.  And occasionally she catches a bird which upsets me.

So that's the back story.  You know how everyone, every entertainer, every quizz show contestant these days has to have a backstory?  There is more back story to Alleycat, of course.  I took two of my grandchildren with me the day I went to choose a kitten from the SPCA (A Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) but didn't take the least bit of notice of what they thought once I spotted Alley.  She was the image of a wild kitten in a alleyway that I'd taken a photo of in Istanbul.

The ladies at the SPCA said they didn't know her history but warned me that she might be difficult to settle.  They even called me after a week to see how we were getting along and said I could bring her back and swap her for another if I wasn't getting along with her.  But she had been fine with my 7 year old grandson, happy to sit on his lap and be stroked so I thought she'd come around to me sooner or later.

Wrong!  She's still good with children.  They can pick her up and cart her around the place and she doesn't say a word, although you can hear her purr from across the room.  So it obviously wasn't children who abused her.

Anyway, my daughter has been helping me sort through my 'stuff' and we found a cat collar with bells on it.  She threw it in the Donate pile but after she'd gone home I fished it back out thinking I'd wait my opportunity and put it on Alley.  Why I thought a nervous animal would like bells tinkling in her ears I have no idea.

My opportunity came yesterday morning when she was in her box and, to my surprise, she just sat there while I put the collar on her.  However, when she stood up to shake the strange thing off her, the jingle sent her into a frenzy and she took off outside at speed.

I thought she'd be back before long as she spends a lot of time in her favourite in the house places.  The box is her latest favourite.  By mid afternoon with no sign of her I was beginning to worry and I called and called her off and on for the rest of the day, feeling more and more guilty about my stupidity.

For the first time ever she didn't speak up to remind me when it was 5 o'clock and her dinner time.  That's when I got seriously worried.

She finally came home at 4.20 this morning.  I heard her come through the window and run quickly to the lounge room but when I went to look for her I couldn't see her.  I put out fresh food for her and went back to bed.  When I got up this morning there was no sign of her but as I walked though the lounge room I heard a very quiet meow.  Extremely quiet for her.  I eventually tracked her to under the couch where she used to hide when she was little.  I had no idea she still fitted under there, she's quite a big cat.  I lifted the couch and she slowly came out from under there but slowly and careful not to jingle the bells.  Uncharacteristically she just sat at my feet while I took the collar off.  Maybe if I'd left it on her she might have learned how to live with it but she looked so traumatised, and I was so traumatised, I couldn't do that to her. 

She hasn't left her box all day and is very wary.  She lifts her head to check for the lady monster every time I make a sound.  And she hasn't said a word all day.  I hope it's just the sulks.  I hope it doesn't take too long for her to learn to understand what "I'm so sorry, Alleycat" means!