I once promised stories starring other animals, so here is a new pet – The Kitty/ The Cat. She is 8 years old and has only been part of the family for a year and half, but it’s easy to forget since she is so settled in her new home.
The Kitty is so attached to us that she follows us around the house to ensure she knows exactly what is happening all of the time. And if we open up a so far unexplored place, then she is definitely getting in there.
One evening, I opened up the attic.
“What’s up there, Hooman?”
“No, Cat, stay down there.”
“Did you climb up there, Hooman? Can I come?”
“No, stay. Don’t move!”
“I’m coming up!” She trotted up the ladder and hopped into the attic before I could grab her.
“Woah, look at this place.”
“Yes, it’s very interesting, now let’s go back downstairs.”
“Look at this… And look at this… I can fit in this!…”
This continued for sometime until she discovered the part of the attic without floor boards.
“Lookie what I found! There’s a huge dark, dusty space here.”
“Don’t go there, it’s all fiber glass!”
“Check it out! It’s squishy!”
“No! Not there.” I crawled after her, tiptoeing between beams.
“I can go higher! Look at me, I’m at the top of the house!”
“Get down! You’ll fall with your terrible balance.”
“Look how high I am! I can walk – WOAH! – just walk, carefully.”
I finally got close enough to reach The Cat, but she wasn’t going to relinquish her perch easily.
“Nononononono! I wanna stay.”
“Let go, Cat!”
Prising her claws from the rafters, I realised I was now stuck. The only way to navigate this space was with hands and feet. Leaning as close as I could to the safety of the floor boards, I gently threw The Cat in the right direction.
In the time it took me to crawl back out The Cat had disappeared, again!
After some searching I found her skirting around the edge of the roof space on the very fiber glass I told her not to walk on. She eventually stopped to groom herself in the farthest corner from me.
“No no no! Don’t groom yourself! If you swallow this stuff it could kill you! Stupid cat!”
“I’m not coming over there. You threw me.”
“You’re not staying here all night.”
“Try me.”
We had reached a stalemate. Or so The Cat thought, for I was ready for one last attempt at catching her. Moving like a demented crab I crouched into the low space, somehow balancing on the wooden beams and reaching, reaching I got The Cat.
“You can’t catch me. No you can’t. Oh.”
Still being new to cat ownership, I was unaware of the effect grabbing her scruff would have. However, she went completely still and docile, frozen in time. Taking advantage of this, I quickly moved to the floor boards once more. Unsure what to make of her frozen state I put her down for a moment.
“Why did you bring me out here? I wanna go…”
“Nope!” I quickly snatched her up, realising she was fine.
With one hand on her scruff and one on her bum, I shuffled down the ladder a step at a time until I was able to drop The Cat to the floor.
“I’m going to ask for treats!”
“Great. You do that, Cat.”
I carefully closed the attic and made a mental note to watch out for The Cat when in there next time.