Bruce has gone walkabout

Only yesterday I got in touch with the RSPCA lady who brought him to me and said “Let me keep him.”

I paid the charity some cash after some fiddling with my bank’s computers saying I hadn’t got the account name right and she said she’d come around Saturday to finish off the paperwork and re-register his microchip to my name and address.

And at about two thirty just after that I got a delivery from Amazon I wasn’t expecting until tomorrow and what with fiddling about with them wanting a security code (they’d never done that before) maybe that was when he slipped out. Or maybe it was later when I was sweating away at the computer working on last night’s game. I’d had the French windows open, you see, to let some air into the flat. I’d drawn the screen door across to keep him safe and indoors and it was still in place when I closed the French windows.

It wasn’t until several hours later that it registered I hadn’t seen or heard anything from him for a while.

I didn’t instantly start worrying because he had vanished once before, also when I had opened the French windows. I went into a panic then and went searching the nearby streets. And I got back posted his details on a missing pets site reported the loss to the RSPCA lady… And then he strolled out from behind some furniture where I’d swear I’d looked as cool as a cucumber and I had to make apologies all round.

A case of the Cat Who Cried Wolf, I fear.

But he didn’t come out from behind anywhere, not even though I left out food for him so I think this time he managed to slip through the screen door somehow or I failed to keep it secure the whole time. My forgetfulness has been getting worse. It looks as though I am going to have to say that if he doesn’t come back this is it for me living with a cat at least until the fabulous day I somehow find enough money to move to a house where I can have a cat who can move from indoors to out without a care. Doesn’t seem likely, I must say.

He had been growing more affectionate with me but I don’t think he was getting more reconciled to being kept confined. He would miaow for no clear reason and you should have heard the noise he made when he spotted another cat through the French windows, lurking near his territory! He wanted to be out there and showing them what’s what and who’s who.

Maybe he’ll be safe for a while. But he’s FIV+ and suddenly in a part of the world he knows nothing of.

So his name and photo is on websites and on a notice (see illustration) outside my flat. Let me know if you see a black cat in the vicinity of High Wycombe let me know.

I shall go now and try to follow the advice the RSPCA lady gave and try not to despise myself. Any more than I already do, I mean.

EDITED TO ADD

And he’s back.

Either that or he never left, it’s hard to tell.

I eventually went out to dump some stuff in the bins at the back and when I got back there he was having scoffed the food left out for him and looking obscenely pleased with himself. He dashed out the French windows and I went and got a sheet that I could throw over him (he’s faster than me) and went out to look for him around the block of flats. No sign, so I went back in… and there he was emerging from the bedroom. This time I managed to get the French windows shut. He prowled about demanded some attention, jumped up on my lap and peed on me.

What is hard to figure out is: was he out all night playing the Wild Rover (he doesn’t appear to have any injuries) or had he hidden in the flat all through last night and into today because he wanted to put me in my place or just to appeal to his evil feline sense of humour.

Yes, I know I’m anthropomorphising. You try living with a cat, see what it does to you.

I may have to take drink tonight…. I’m just going to pop out and take the ‘missing cat’ notice down. I’ll keep it on the computer. He may try to pull this again.