The master returns
Regular followers of the blog will be pleased to learn that Jack, the Alarm Cat, is home again after a nine-day holiday. Justine and Lyndon were passing our old house when they saw him on what used to be the terrace. Thanks to them for calling us with the news, and for Lyndon for the photo.
We set out in the late afternoon armed with a Symi Animal Welfare cat box and arrived at what is now a building site shortly afterwards. The house is being completely renovated, the land in front is stacked with building materials and bits of old house, the walls are all rendered, there’s concrete everywhere and the old balustrade has now gone. Luckily the gate was open so we didn’t have to disturb our old neighbours who were on their steps in the side lane. Last time we had to snaffle the cat away from his old home we had to go through their house and up their back garden steps onto our old flat roof and catch him there. This time it was much easier. I walked up the steps to the garden and there he was. He started to dash off when he saw me and then changed his mind and came to me. I was able to pick him up and pop him in the box with no injuries.
He made quite a fuss on the way home, much the amusement of our old neighbours who knew exactly what we were up to… again. Back at home he was straight to his food bowl in traditional fashion and only spent a few hours shouting the place down before settling in on Neil’s lap to watch a film. The following day, Sunday, he was a bit ‘clingy’ but otherwise his usual self and he looks quite well and fit. His ears even seem a bit better, though that’s temporary and his black nose is spreading. Nothing is yet too nasty in that department and a slight weight loss seems to have done him good.
The house where we are now is the third house in his life, he was born up at Ag Triada and lived there for a year before moving to Ag Athanasios; he never went back to the original house from there, but this is the second or third time he has tried to get back to the last house. Maybe because there’s a garden there with his familiar smells, he was there for eleven years and he does have some descendants there from a quick-fire round he got off before he was ‘done.’ For now, though, he’s going to be staying in, with the courtyard door closed, much as he might want to go and explore he clearly has no idea of how to look after himself while he is away. I hate to think who he had been annoying with his noise, or where he got his food and water from, but like I say, he looks fine and is home again. And I was just getting used to the peace and quiet too.
