Missing

Categories: cat

Date: 13 July 2010 12:40:56

I saw Henry on Wednesday. I didn’t see him Thursday. This is not unusual. Henry is the more adventurous of the two brothers. James will chase squirrels in the park. Henry will chase them 6 feet up a tree trunk before falling off. James will bring a mouse he caught into the house. Henry will bring in a pigeon.

But Henry didn’t appear at all over the weekend. His food was left uneaten. James started pinning. I feared the worst. I stood outside Saturday at midnight calling Henry’s name, convinced I could hear him meowing. Mr Standard said I was imagining things. Sunday night I imagined the same. Mr Standard tried to suggest we may need to prepare ourselves for the worse.

Monday evening we discussed putting up ‘missing cat’ posters. And then I went outside to weed the front garden instead. James followed and spent an hour getting in my way. Just as I was about to go in I noticed a face in the front window of next door. A pale ginger feline face. It was Henry. A very upset, trapped Henry.

Next door were away over the weekend, As far as we could see all their windows were shut. But Henry was most definitely inside. I had not been imagining the meowing. But what to do now? 11pm and no sign of any neighbour coming home I persuaded Mr Standard to climb over the back wall and see if there was any window open. A real cat burglar. There wasn’t an open window. But there was a cat flap. A lockable cat flap. Locked in the in-only position. Henry had obviously gone exploring a bit too far last week. We unlocked the cat flat but Henry remained mewing at the window. Clearly too spooked to come out. Or too afraid of banging his head again.

But this morning a very hungry Henry appeared for breakfast. And next door appeared home from their holiday. I can only hope Henry hadn’t been too messy a guest.